Several prominent conservative leaders on Friday pushed back against President Donald Trump’s criticism of the House Freedom Caucus and warned Republicans against walking away from health care reform.

In the wake of an embarrassing defeat over efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Trump has lashed out against the lower chamber’s most conservative members, sending a series of tweets to suggest he would back primary challenges.

“Not only is he going to need the Freedom Caucus in virtually every single fight to come, but the irony is that the Freedom Caucus is going to be his strongest supporters in the battles ahead.”

In a conference call organized by an organization called “ForAmerica,” conservatives told reporters that it is a mistake for Trump to break with the Freedom Caucus.

“Not only is he going to need the Freedom Caucus in virtually every single fight to come, but the irony is that the Freedom Caucus is going to be his strongest supporters in the battles ahead,” said the group’s chairman, Brent Bozell.

Added Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks: “The HFC is Donald Trump’s No. 1 ally in draining the swamp.”

Bozell also said it would be a political disaster for Republicans to give up even though bill backed by House leaders, the American Health Care Act, failed to attract enough voters to pass. He said promises to repeal Obamacare are a primary reason why Trump won last year’s election and why the GOP has a majority in both houses of Congress.

“I cannot stress more how important the repeal of Obamacare is for the Republican Party,” he said. “It’s been the party’s top priority for the past six years.”

Bozell suggested it may be even more important to Trump’s future.

“Donald Trump was elected because the American people are fed up with broken promises from Congress,” he said. “They simply don’t believe people will honor their words. … It is absolute suicide for the Republican Party to follow the course they’re embarking on right now.”

Brandon noted that the House has voted 54 times to repeal Obamacare. In 2015, he added, the House and Senate passed a repeal — with only five Republican dissenters — that resulted in a veto by then-President Barack Obama.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

That, Brandon said, should be the model. Instead, Republican leaders offered by a half-measure that would have left the basic architecture of Obamacare in place and that had the support of just 17 percent of Americans, he said.

“This thing is a real turkey at the moment,” he said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) argued for a three-step approach to repealing the law in order to get around Senate filibuster rules. The first would repeal portions of the law tied to the budget, which would require only a simple majority in the Senate. The second involved rules changes that Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price could make on his own. Finally would be a bill changing the regulatory mandates on insurance companies.

Advocates argued it would be possible to win at least 60 votes in the Senate.

But conservatives were skeptical that the third step would ever come. Without eliminating the mandates on insurance companies that drive up costs, they contended, premiums would continue to rise and Republicans would get the blame.

But Chip Roy, a former chief of staff for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said the best approach would be to put all of the changes in a single bill and push hard in the Senate. He said a reasonable argument can be made that the regulations on insurance companies have a budget impact.

“What has become clear is the parliamentarian in the Senate hasn’t been consulted,” said Roy, who now is director of the Center for the Tenth Amendment Action at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

And even if the parliamentarian were to rule that portions of the bill were not sufficiently connected to the budget to avoid the filibuster, Roy said, the dispute ultimately would be up to the Senate leadership, which could overrule the parliamentarian.

Mike Needham, CEO of Heritage Action for America, said Freedom Caucus members are being reasonable. He said they — and conservative interest groups like his own — are willing to live with many provisions they do not like as long as a repeal bill knocks out the costly regulations that drive up premiums.

[lz_related_box id=”620915″]

“The path is very clear. The Freedom Caucus is willing to negotiate,” he said. “The Freedom Caucus has been very clear about what they want … We would be willing to look the other way on many other aspects of this bill, which are imperfect.”

Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and president of Tea Party Patriots, urged Trump’s Office of Personnel Management to reverse an exemption that allows members of Congress and their staffers to enroll in an Obamacare exchange set up for small employers in the nation’s capital.

“That would put the onus on them to repeal Obamacare within the next six months or they have to live under the laws the way they were meant to and the way the rest of the country has to do,” she said.