SEN. JOHN McCAIN
Senator returns from surgery to buoy a healthcare bill and urge bipartisanship.
(R-Ariz.), who was recovering from surgery and has been diagnosed with brain cancer, returned to support the GOP’s procedural healthcare vote, but criticized his party’s process.
WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain, who last week revealed his brain cancer diagnosis, made a dramatic, sooner-than-expected return to the Senate floor on Tuesday to help save the GOP’s latest attempt to repeal Obamacare.
With two fellow Republicans voting against even opening debate on a bill, the stalled GOP plan would have failed again without McCain’s decision to leave his Arizona home, where he has been recuperating from having a blood clot removed.
Looking strong but with stitches above his left eye, he entered the chamber to cheers and a standing ovation, a greeting not always extended to a senator who has sparred frequently with Democrats and has often frustrated those in his own party by charting his own course.
But after casting a crucial vote that allowed Republicans to move forward in their efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — a move that passed with all Democrats opposed and Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie — McCain then delivered an impassioned speech.
He criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for the secretive, partisan process he adopted in pushing the repeal bill and urged his colleagues to return to a more bipartisan approach rather than focus on “winning.”
And he scolded senators of both parties for “not producing much for the American people” because of partisan, trivial debates.
“Let’s trust each other. Let’s return to regular order. We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues,” McCain said. “We’re getting nothing done, my friends. We’re getting nothing done.”
McCain had criticized the Republicans’ secretive process for the healthcare bill and encouraged senators to start over with a bipartisan approach.
Although he voted on the motion to proceed, McCain said he would not vote for the bill in its current form.
“Our healthcare system is a mess; we all know it,” he said. “Something has to be done .... All we’ve managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasn’t very popular when we started trying to get rid of it.”
The senator has received an outpouring of support since his diagnosis with brain cancer, but many opponents of repealing the current healthcare system criticized his vote Tuesday as hypocritical, particularly in light of his subsequent comments.
President Trump also voiced support for McCain, tweeting Tuesday morning that the senator was a “brave American hero.” During the presidential campaign, Trump had questioned whether McCain, a Vietnam War veteran who spent years as a prisoner, was a hero because he was captured.
The senator also reiterated Tuesday that he would not be leaving the Senate because of his illness.
‘Let’s trust each other .... We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues. We’re getting nothing done, my friends.’ — Sen. John McCain