tupungato/iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) – Wednesday night’splanned House of Representatives vote on the Republican-backed American Health Care Act was postponed this afternoon as the party struggled to collect the votes needed to ensure its passage.

But the White House is “confident” the bill will pass Friday. “Debate will commence tonight as planned and the vote will be in the morning to avoid voting at 3 a.m.,” White House deputy press
secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

“We feel this should be done in the light of day, not in the wee hours of the night and we are confident the bill will pass in the morning.”

President Trump had made his last-minute sales pitch to conservative House Freedom Caucus members at the White House earlier in the day. After the meeting, however, House Freedom Caucus members
said they hadn’t reached a point where they could support the AHCA in its current form.

The president and caucus members discussed options and were “trying to get creative,” caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told ABC News.

“We are certainly trying to get to yes,” he told reporters on the Hill on Wednesday before the vote postponement. “But, indeed, we’ve made very reasonable requests and we are hopeful that those
reasonable requests will be listened to and, ultimately, agreed to.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer had earlier called the meeting a “positive step” and said the White House was “very, very pleased with the direction” of the negotiations.

He also dismissed characterizations of the meeting as attempts to strike a deal.

“I think some of them stood up and said, ‘Mr. President, we’re with you.’ I think a lot of them said, ‘We’re going to go back and think about it.’ The meeting didn’t conclude by saying, ‘Do we have
a deal?’ That’s not why we have it,” Spicer said. “This was a discussion that the president continues to have.”

Despite Wednesday’s late-night negotiations and personal pitches from President Trump, the list of “no” votes against the AHCA appeared to still stand.

At least 30 Republicans had said they would oppose the bill, according to ABC News’ latest whip count, meaning Republicans could fall at least nine votes short. The GOP needs 216 votes for a simple
majority to pass the bill in the House.

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