Week In Review: Health Care Bill, Trump Tweets, Travel Ban, Sonja Farak

Senate Leader Mitch McConnell was unable to assemble the votes for a plan that would dramatically scale back Medicaid, leave 22 million people uninsured and deliver a huge tax cut to wealthy Americans. He says he'll try again after the 4th of July recess.

The bill has divided the Republican conference. Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, told reporters, "It's difficult for me to see how any tinkering is going to satisfy my fundamental and deep concerns about the impact of the bill."

The Democrats remain unanimous in their opposition to the Republican plan. This week, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey said that the legislation the Republicans are proposing is "of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich to ensure that they get a huge tax break while the health care for ordinary families in our country is slashed."

But the debate about how to rewrite 15 percent of the national economy was overwhelmed by President Trump's Twitter attack on Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. He referred to them as "low IQ, Crazy Mika" and "psycho Joe," and said that Brzezinski was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" on New Year's Eve.

On Friday morning, Brzezinski said, "The president's tweets, whether they're personally aimed at me, or aimed at me in some way, [don't] bother me one bit. It does worry me about the country. He appears to have a fragile, impetuous, childlike ego that we've seen over and over again, especially with women. It's like he can't take it."

Dozens of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized the president's tweets. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote, "Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America."

Collins of Maine tweeted about the president, "This has to stop."

John Carroll, professor of communication at Boston University and senior analyst for WBUR. He tweets @johncarrol_bu.

Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute in Boston. He tweets @JimStergios.