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Republicans in Congress are learning to tune out President Trump's controversial Twitter rants.

Trump's explosive tweetstorm alleging that former President Barack Obama wiretapped his business and campaign organizations is the sort of event that would have consumed House and Senate Republicans in the past. Instead, the intelligence committees announced they would include the charges in their investigations, and then most caucus members simply moved on.

Having grown accustomed to his unorthodox style, the bar has been raised for tweets that merit a GOP freak-out, especially with higher priorities at hand, such as healthcare reform.

As Republicans departed Washington for the weekend, they were aware that it might bring a Trump Twitter tirade, just as last weekend did. No matter, many just shrugged.

"It's part of the new normal," Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said in an interview. "The president's allowed to make pronouncements on anything he likes; we really need to do our work."

Trump's use of Twitter has broken the rules of presidential communication. The president has used the social medium to attack political enemies, threaten foreign countries, goad private corporations and make statements either disproven or unsupported by facts.

Each time, congressional Republicans are bombarded with questions. Do they agree with what Trump said? Do they agree that he said it at all?

They were initially rattled by the president's actions, as well as that they were expected to answer for them. But over time, Republicans have learned not to get distracted from legislative business. They've also grown a thicker skin when it comes to refusing to answer questions about statements and behavior they can't necessarily explain, anyway.

"What Trump's outbursts are actually doing for the conference is honing our ability to weed out and stop responding to things that don't matter," a senior Republican House aide said, requesting anonymity in order to speak candidly. "It has made us more disciplined."

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A second senior Republican aide referred to Trump's unfounded allegations that Obama "wiretapped" him, made last weekend in multiple Twitter posts, as "errant tweets" that wouldn't impact the party's legislative agenda. Indeed, healthcare arguably dominated the week.

To the extent that Republicans are still concerned about Trump's Twitter habit, that anxiety resides in the Senate. And, particularly, Republican senators worry about the president's habit of spreading obviously false information over the medium.

In interviews with the Washington Examiner, Republican senators focused on the issue of credibility.

They accepted, in some cases grudgingly, in others, admiringly, the reach Trump has via Twitter. Through a single, clunkily-worded tweet, often posted without consulting, or even alerting, his White House communications team, Trump often drives public opinion and the news cycle.

But they're still uncomfortable with the president's habit of being cavalier with the truth.

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"Anytime you're saying or tweeting something that's factually incorrect, that hurts your credibility. And at some point in time, your credibility isn't where it needs to be," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis, said. "I'm always concerned about that, the president ought to be concerned about that."

The White House has defended Trump's controversial tweets. Sometimes, that has meant rejecting critics' charges that Trump misled on the facts. Other times, that defense has taken the form of a suggestion that the president was making a broader argument that is, overall, accurate.

Trump's supporters often say that journalists are making the mistake of taking Trump "literally," rather than paying attention to the larger point he is making on a particular topic.

Some Republicans say that might have been acceptable for a presidential candidate, but it is dangerous for a president, given the scrutiny paid to his words, both domestically and around the world.

"He's got a way of doing business that's different from anybody I've met; it seems to work for him. But the difference from being a candidate and being president is pretty real," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. "When you make a statement as president, regardless of the medium, people tend to take you literally."

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For Republicans, Trump's Twitter outbursts are becoming white noise - Washington Examiner

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2016 file photo, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. crosses his fingers while speaking at a campaign rally in Janesville, Wis. Less than twenty-four hours after Donald Trump won the White House, Ryan held a news conference in his hometown of Janesville, Wis. to triumphantly proclaim the start of a new era of Republican leadership that would hit the ground running. Six weeks into Trumps administration, Republicans are running, just in different directions. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) Less than twenty-four hours after Donald Trump had won the White House, House Speaker Paul Ryan triumphantly proclaimed the start of a new era of Republican leadership that would hit the ground running.

Six weeks into Trumps administration, Republicans are running just in different directions.

As congressional leaders move forward with efforts to undo former President Barack Obamas health care law, conservative activists and GOP lawmakers are slamming the proposal as Obamacare lite, Obamacare 2.0 and RINOcare RINO standing for Republicans In Name Only, a term of derision.

Swing state senators worry that their sickest and poorest constituents could lose access to health care. Republican governors fear that millions of people now covered by Medicaid could be dropped, a step the governors warn could hurt GOP candidates in their states.

Weve said all along, Work with the governors,' said Gov. Brian Sandoval, R-Nev. Well, they came out with their own bill, which doesnt include anything that the governors have talked about.

Republican leaders hoped unified control of Washington would unite the party around years of campaign promises to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, cut taxes and slash regulations.

Instead, the celebratory weeks that followed Trumps victory seem to have been little more than a temporary cease-fire in a yearslong GOP civil war.

There are people who havent adjusted to the fact that we have a Republican president, said Michael Steel, a former top adviser to onetime Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who frequently tangled with tea party-aligned lawmakers. These guys could wind up leading the cavalry charge straight into machine-gun fire.

The health care battle is probably the first of many intraparty clashes to come. Already, plans to overhaul tax laws have Republicans tied in knots, budget hawks are skeptical about Trumps $1 trillion infrastructure plan and senior GOP lawmakers have rejected major pieces of his upcoming budget proposal.

The White House realizes that it must win over many of the objectors. With Democratic voters demanding nothing short of complete resistance to Trump, congressional passage of the Republican agenda will depend largely on party-line votes. That leaves limited room for GOP defections.

In a Wednesday meeting with the leaders of conservative groups, Trump positioned himself as the good cop in the conflict, taking what one participant described as a series of veiled shots at Ryan. The president argued that his team was at least meeting with conservative activists, according to the participant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.

Trump also reminded the activists of his strong support among the conservative base and said he planned to campaign in states he won, in an effort to pressure their unsupportive lawmakers.

I want to be as helpful to the Trump administration as I can. Im very supportive of the president. I support him, I want to help him. But respect has to go up and down the street, its got to go both ways, said Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., a member of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus.

At least one conservative group is already running digital ads against the GOP health care plan, arguing that the tax credits in the bill essentially replace one federal entitlement with another. Activists plan to swarm Capitol Hill to demand Congress pass a repeal bill that would completely erase all trace of Obamas signature domestic achievement.

This is not something that is easy for us to say, OK, well take half a loaf,' said Adam Brandon, head of the conservative activist group FreedomWorks. What Senate Leader Mitch McConnell promised when he was on the campaign trail was were going to repeal Obamacare root and branch. So what were asking him to do is repeal root and branch.

Republican leaders attribute some of the discord to inexperience. Just one-quarter of House Republicans ever served in the majority with a Republican president, meaning the vast majority of their members have spent their congressional careers focused solely on blocking a Democratic administrations agenda and fighting their own leadership.

During the Obama years, conservative lawmakers ousted incumbent Republicans, brought down a House speaker and pushed presidential candidates to the right.

When you have a president of another party you can freelance all you want to but now we have an actual chance to change the country, said McConnell, R-Ky., speaking at a breakfast hosted by Politico. We need to get into a governing mode and start thinking about actually achieving something rather than just sparring.

Shifting public opinion has also complicated the calculus for Republicans, increasing the political risk of giving into conservative demands for a total rollback of the health law.

Since Trumps election, polls show the law gaining in popularity. Over the congressional recess last month, GOP lawmakers faced raucous town halls and furious protesters demanding to keep their coverage.

If the GOP is unable to make good on seven years of election promises to repeal the law, they risk entering the 2018 elections without a tangible achievement and angering a Republican base that spent years fighting to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

But if millions lose access to health coverage as a result of the GOP bill, it could expose members in swing districts to fierce attacks.

Governing is tough, says Robert Blendon, an expert on public attitudes about health care at Harvard University. Some Republicans didnt think through the politics of taking away coverage for 21 million people who now have it.

___

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

___

Associated Press writer Julie Bykowicz contributed to this report.

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Republicans still battle each other even after gaining power - WTOP

WASHINGTON Republican lawmakers are showing increasing resistance to President Donald Trumps trade agenda, worried that his plans could hurt exports from their states and undermine longstanding U.S. alliances.

The concerns indicate that the biggest threat to Trumps trade policy which emphasizes new bilateral deals and a tougher stance against countries blamed for violating trade rules is coming from his own party. The opposition from Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, stands to complicate Trumps efforts to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta, and tackle alleged trade violations in China.

We want to support him on all those things; were not there yet, said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R., Okla.), whose state depends on aerospace and agricultural exports.

While many Democrats in Congress are interested in working with the Trump administration, Republicans who have long backed free trade many of them close to business groups are warning that imposing tariffs could lead to retaliation against U.S. goods. Lawmakers from farm states are upset that Trump in January pulled out of the unratified Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, the 12-nation trade agreement that Barack Obama negotiated.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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Trump's trade agenda faces challenge in winning over Republicans ... - MarketWatch

Not much over the past couple of days has made the passage of the American Health Care Act seem more likely. One of the House bills chief Republican critics, Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, told ABC's George Stephanopoulos Sunday that the proposal "as it's written todaycannot pass the Senate."

Cotton was harsh not only on the bill's prescription for Obamacare but on the political fallout for Republicans who support it. "I believe it would have adverse consequences for millions of Americans and it wouldn't deliver on our promises to reduce the cost of health insurance for Americans," he said. "So, I would say to my friends in the House of Representatives with whom I serve, do not walk the plank and vote for a bill that cannot pass the Senate and then have to face the consequences of that vote."

Then Cotton went a step further: "I'm afraid that if they vote for this bill, they're going to put the House majority at risk next year." What does Trump think of Cotton's prediction, and how much does the president think about how to protect his Republican majority in the House? The White House is mum. "Contact the RNC," wrote press secretary Sean Spicer in a curt email.

Republicans Are Damned If They Do or Don't

Is Cotton's warning alarmist or shrewd? It's obviously too soon to tellthe House committees have voted the bill through but GOP leadership won't bring to a floor vote until after the Congressional Budget Office scores itbut Cotton's sentiments reflect a growing sense among some congressional Republicans that the party is not just squandering a great chance to implement a conservative health-care program. With this bill, the GOP may be sowing the seeds of their demise. Bad policy and bad optics, say Cotton and the various Republicans (from Freedom Caucus members in the House to Maine moderate Susan Collins) urging the House to start over, will make for bad politics.

House speaker Paul Ryan pushed back on this on CBS's Face the Nation, agreeing with President Trump's statement that without passing this particular Obamacare repeal, 2018 will be a "bloodbath." "Look, the most important thing for a person like myself, who runs for office and tells the people we are asking to hire us, this is what I will do if I get elected. And then, if you don't do that, you are breaking your word," Ryan said.

Both men have a point. So what's a conflicted Republican congressman to do?

Trump to Listen to Someone on Health Care

On the president's Monday schedule is a late-morning "listening session on healthcare" in the White House's Roosevelt Room. No word from Trump's staff who will be there for the president to listen tomembers of Congress? industry representatives? doctors? patients?but it's a sign Trump may be looking for ways to alter the bill he's already gotten behind.

The director of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, said on Fox News Sunday that Trump was "willing to accept improvements to the bill."

"We've met with many groups over the last week, week and a half. We've talked with many different groups as we possibly could. And anyone that comes off with an improvement, we are more than happy to accept," Cohn said.

You're FiredAll 46 of You!

On Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions formally asked for the resignation of all 46 United States attorneys who were appointed by Barack Obama. This practice is pretty standard when a new party holds the White House. As former U.S. attorney Andrew McCarthy notes, Bill Clinton's attorney general Janet Reno fired 93 such attorneys in 1993.

But the routine request couldn't escape the constant drumbeat of drama in Trump's Washington. One of those attorneys, Manhattan's Preet Bharara, refused to resign on Friday (unlike his other colleagues, who issued public statements declaring. On Saturday, Bharara said he had been fired.

Why did Bharara not resign? Back in November, the hard-charging attorney had met with the president-elect at Trump Tower, where he said he had been asked by Trump and Sessions to stay in his post. But on Thursday, President Trump reportedly made a phone call to Bharara, who refused to accept the call, citing Justice Department protocols. It's unknown what Trump wanted to discuss, but the next day, Justice asked the U.S. attorneys to resign.

Not every U.S. attorney's resignation was accepted. Those of the acting deputy attorney general, Dana Boente, and the nominated deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, were declined, according to a Justice Department spokesman.

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Could Trumpcare Sink Republicans in 2018? - The Weekly Standard

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, center, U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (back, left) and U.S. Rep. Tom Graves (back, center) at a rally in Marietta in November. Curtis Compton,ccompton@ajc.com

Georgia Republicans are sharply divided over the GOP proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act thats galloping through the U.S. House of Representatives, raising concerns about the lack of a cost estimate for the overhaul and its impact on the states budget as it moves through Capitol Hill.

As House lawmakers prepare to vote on the sweeping rewrite of health care policy, at least two GOP congressmen from Georgia said they wont support the measure in its current form. And Gov. Nathan Deal has raised concerns about how it will affect Georgia and other states that refused to expand Medicaid.

The fight over the plan is another stinging reminder of the challenges of making substantial changes to health policy even for Republicans who have long vowed to repeal the signature law of Barack Obamas presidency.

Under pressure from President Donald Trump, who has endorsed the plan, House GOP leaders have signaled they would make only minor changes to the proposal. Democrats, health care industry groups and other critics, meanwhile, are eagerly fanning the flames of a budding revolt. Conservative groups arent happy either, taking issue with the bills refundable tax credits that they say are akin to a new federal entitlement.

Before the measure was introduced, Deal recounted a call with fellow Republicans governors who he said took the bait and expanded Medicaid with the promise that the federal government would pick up the bulk of the bill.

I would remind Republican governors who expanded Medicaid that was part of Obamacare, said Deal. And now it could very well go away. I am sympathetic to what they did, but we dont want to be punished for what those states did.

More: Georgia Republicans are sharply divided over the House GOPs healthcare plan

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Why Georgia Republicans are nervous about House health plan - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)