tupungato/iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The House will vote on the Republican-backed American Health Care Act (AHCA) Friday after Thursday night’s planned House vote was delayed.

President Donald Trump’s top advisers told House Republicans in a meeting on the Hill Thursday evening that the president felt the time had come for a vote on the AHCA — and that it should happen
Friday.

Sources in the room told ABC News Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney delivered President Trump’s call for an up-or-down vote on Friday, regardless of where the vote count
stands.

“That’s what POTUS wants,” one attendee told ABC News.

“We have to have a vote tomorrow. He expects it to pass. But he’s moving on if for some reason it didn’t,” Rep. Chris Collins, R-New York, told reporters.

Senior Trump aides Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway were in the room but did not speak during the session, sources said.

On his way into the meeting, Priebus told ABC News he’s “feeling good” about things. “Still feeling positive. A lot of work to do,” he said.

While sources said White House officials didn’t rule out further negotiations or changes to the bill, they made clear the time has come to put the conference on record.

House Freedom Caucus leader Rep. Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, who has led opposition to the plan and has been courted personally by the president, was not in attendance. He told reporters
outside the meeting that he wants to keep dealmaking and was said to be trying to arrange direct talks between his group and the more moderate “Tuesday Group” later this evening.

The AHCA vote was postponed this afternoon as the party struggled to collect the votes needed to ensure its passage.

But the White House said it 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, 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,” Meadows told ABC News.

“We are certainly trying to get to yes,” Meadows told reporters on the Hill today 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.”

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.”

Some House Republicans have grown frustrated with the demands of their colleagues in the Freedom Caucus.

“Two groups that don’t represent even the majority of the Republican conference have been given every opportunity to have multiple conversations with the president and the leadership,” Rep. Bradley
Byrne, R-Alabama, said. “At some point, you’ve got to say, ‘That’s it.’ And we’re at that point.”

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 32 Republicans had said they would oppose the bill, according to ABC News’ latest whip count. The GOP needs 216 votes for a simple majority to pass the bill in the House, so they can
afford to lose 21 votes for passage.

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