Trump blasts McCain for opposing health repeal
President takes to preferred medium, Twitter, against GOP senators who’ve blocked efforts
Doug Stanglin
@dstanglin USA TODAY
President Trump, in a Saturday morning tweetstorm, blasted Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for opposing the latest GOP attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, saying McCain was snookered by Democrats to let down “his best friend” Sen. Lindsey Graham, coauthor of the proposed bill.
The Graham-Cassidy legislation, which was expected to be voted on next week in the Senate, would get rid of some mandates of the Affordable Care Act but for the most part would put its taxes in place and redistribute the money to states in the form of block grants.
The bill would also end the Medicaid expansion that 31 states and Washington, D.C., took advantage of under Obamacare and overhaul the funding for traditional Medicaid.
Trump defended the bill, tweeting: “Large Block Grants to States is a good thing to do. Better control & management. Great for Arizona. McCain let his best friend L.G. down!”
The initials referred to Graham, R-S.C., a close friend of McCain and co-author of the bill that appears to be the last-gasp effort by Republicans this year to try to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Graham issued a statement Friday saying his friendship with McCain “is not based on how he votes but respect for how he’s lived his life and the person he is.”
The Senate’s closely divided makeup means Republicans, who control 52 of the chamber’s 100 seats, cannot lose more than two GOP senators if they hope to pass the legislation.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has already declared he is a “no” vote, while Sen. Susan Collins, RMaine, has said she is “leaning no.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who voted against the GOP’s last repeal-and-replace effort, is also considered a likely vote against Graham-Cassidy.
Frustrated Tea Party activists held a rally Saturday afternoon near the U.S. Capitol to urge Republicans to end the Affordable Care Act.
“The single most important promise they have made to us in the last 71⁄2 years is to repeal Obamacare,” Tea Party Patriots President Jenny Beth Martin told the crowd. “And what have we seen time after time after time? Excuses.”
McCain, she told the crowd, “is in large part why we have a Tea Party in the first place.”
Trump’s Twitter action Saturday included three hits on McCain, including one that said the senator “never had any intention of voting for this Bill, which his Governor loves. He campaigned on Repeal & Replace. Let Arizona down!”
He also claimed Arizona’s Obamacare premiums went up 116% last year and said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., “sold John McCain a bill of goods. Sad.”
It was the second day in a row the president took swipes at McCain. At a rally in Alabama on Friday night, the president said he was stunned by McCain’s vote against the previous repeal bill, saying his opposition was “totally unexpected” and “terrible.”
Surprisingly, Trump appeared to be wooing Paul — the first Republican senator to come out against the bill — to switch: “I know Rand Paul and I think he may find a way to get there for the good of the Party!”
He also tweeted about Murkowski, appearing to chide her for her vote in July against the earlier repeal attempt: “Alaska had a 200% plus increase in premiums under ObamaCare, worst in the country. Deductibles high, people angry! Lisa M comes through.”
In July, McCain delivered the key vote that killed the effort, flashing a dramatic thumbs down on the Senate floor in the waning minutes of the vote.
This time McCain issued a statement well in advance of next week’s expected vote.