Obamacare vote big moment for House Freedom Caucus

In the final hours before the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare was expected to come to a vote, the House Freedom Caucus had a place at the negotiating table with President Trump.

The group of conservative lawmakers had already succeeded in delaying a planned vote on the American Health Care Act Thursday, after separate meetings Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., produced no deal.

"We have not gotten enough of our members to get to yes at this point under what we're currently considering," Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told reporters.

Meadows had been the target of Trump's barbs earlier in the week. "I'm coming after you," the president warned him. White House press secretary Sean Spicer later said Trump was joking.

There was little evidence Meadows' allies were intimidated. "I think his call-out only emboldened" conservatives said one congressional aide.