Heidi Alexander: “a week ago Saturday night, I was having dinner with my wife. It was about 8:30 in the evening, and the telephone rang…”

“a week ago Saturday night, I was having dinner with my wife. It was about 8:30 in the evening, and the telephone rang, my cell phone, sitting in my pocket. I pulled it out, and it was the White House operator. The President was calling. So I walked out of the restaurant, sat on a curb outside in the dark, and had about a 15-minute conversation with the President of the United States while my dinner got cold. President Trump said: I am calling about the cost-sharing reduction payments. I have cut them off as of October 1. The court says they are illegal. I don't want insurance companies to be bailed out. I think I can get block grants to replace ObamaCare, but I don't want people to suffer in the meantime. So he said to me: I think I might want to get a bipartisan interim deal, a short-term deal. I have called Chuck Schumer and told him that. The President put that out in a tweet that day. So the President said to me: Why don't you negotiate with Senator Murray and try to get one; meaning a short-term, bipartisan deal. I said: Well, what about the CSR payments? He said: I can put them back, and you can use that as a negotiating tool to get a better deal with the Democrats. I responded that I was already working on an agreement with Senator Murray. He said: Finish it, and let me know. He called me again last Saturday. We talked about it again, and we talked twice yesterday.…”