No conspiracy or secret deals, the minute they chickened out from a straight repeal we knew they’d come up with a replacement, and said replacement would be opposed by conservatives for being more of the same and opposed by liberals for getting rid of their proud flagship, and therefore would fail. It as politics as usual, obvious months ago.
sorry about the ‘conspiracy theory’ heading but I had to put this under ‘conspiracy’ because it’s Politico, who is marginally banned lately.