President Trump on prospects for Obamacare repeal: "We're going to do it eventually" https://t.co/UYpqI3w42L https://t.co/oT0NuebI8k
— CNN (@CNN) September 23, 2017
President Trump chided Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) late Friday for opposing a last-ditch plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, insisting the GOP would “eventually” roll back his predecessor’s signature health-care law.
Trump called McCain’s opposition “totally unexpected” and “terrible” during a campaign rally in Huntsville, Ala., where he stumped on behalf of Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) ahead of Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff against former judge Roy Moore.
“John McCain, if you look at his last campaign, it was all about repeal and replace, repeal and replace,” Trump told the crowd. “So he decided to do something different, and that’s fine.”
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“We’re going to do it eventually,” Trump insisted of ObamaCare repeal efforts, adding Strange would help the GOP reach the goal.
Trump broadly chastised congressional Republicans for campaigning for seven years “saying repeal and replace, repeal and replace” and failing to deliver on the promise.
“They didn’t care, nobody cared, because they had a president who wasn’t going to sign it,” Trump said, referring to GOP votes to repeal ObamaCare under former President Barack Obama.
“So it didn’t take much courage,” he continued. “I think they voted, what 61 times? Sixty-one times to repeal and replace. They finally get a president who will sign the legislation and they don’t have the guts to vote for it.”
McCain was one of a few GOP senators watched closely ahead of a possible vote next week on the repeal legislation sponsored by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
McCain cast a deciding vote in late July killing a scaled-down ObamaCare repeal bill, joining Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) in voting against the bill.
The Arizona Republican announced Friday he would also vote against the latest repeal measure from Graham and Cassidy, which Republicans hoped to vote on next week ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline for approving the bill on a majority vote.
“I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal. I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried,” McCain said in a statement.
Trump said Friday night that he was provided a list of 10 GOP senators who were “absolute no’s” on ObamaCare repeal, saying McCain was not on the list.
“John McCain was not on the list. So that was a totally unexpected thing, terrible. Honestly, terrible,” Trump said.
The president acknowledged that McCain’s opposition hurt GOP repeal efforts, but insisted the party would “go back” and press for repeal.
“It’s like a boxer – they get knocked down, get up. Knocked down, get up,” Trump said.
“And then the bad ones, they stay in the stool and they say, ‘We quit, we quit.’ The great ones get up and they end up winning. That’s what we’re going to do. We might have to go back again and again.”
Updated: 9:43 p.m.