President Donald Trump lashed out at Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Saturday for his public takedown of the Graham-Cassidy proposal—the Senate GOP’s latest Obamacare repeal effort under consideration.
“John McCain never had any intention of voting for this Bill, which his Governor loves,” Trump said in the first of a trio of tweets. “He campaigned on Repeal & Replace. Let Arizona down!”
The President also accused McCain of taking the “sad” step of aligning himself with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) while abandoning his closest ally in the Senate, proposal co-sponsor Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
The 81-year-old senator issued a lengthy statement on Friday saying he “could not in good conscience” vote for the measure out of concerns over the rushed process with which it was being rammed through. The Senate GOP has a deadline of Sept. 30 to pass an Obamacare repeal measure using the particular legislative vehicle they adapted to avoid a Democratic filibuster. In the name of expediency, Senate Republicans have pushed Graham-Cassidy forward without even getting a full score of its impact from the Congressional Budget Office.
“I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried,” McCain said in his statement. “Nor could I support it without knowing how much it will cost, how it will effect insurance premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it.”
His full-throated opposition weakens the bill’s chances of passing, as Senate Republicans can only lose two Republican votes and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has already signaled he’s against it. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has also hinted that she would vote against the measure if it were brought to the floor.
As with previous repeal efforts, Trump has done little to publicly advocate for Graham-Cassidy outside of sending a few tweets. On Saturday, he fired off a few encouraging missives to senators likely to vote down the proposal, including Paul and Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski.
Yes a big spiked cudgel is always an effective tool to woo potential allies.
Just for fun - wonder how he will take to this… not only are ex fanboy/tool Bannon and his HudSec campaigning for Moore (against him and strange), Hannity is going to interview Bannon in Alabama on the eve of the primary election. Looks like they are going to have a little circle jerk - but the big jerk is being left out of the circle.
That Trump confirms, with some execrable action or comment, that he is as crazy as a bedbug, or generates headlines such as “Trump inveighs against (fill in slandered person) in early morning twitterstorm” just isn’t news for me anymore; It’s background noise now. The responses, on the other hand, are more interesting; or at least more entertaining.
Armando of DKos
In response to Infowars dude
ETA. Serious Question: Have we reached “peak Trump” yet? That is, outside of his personally dropping a Nuke on Pyongyang from the “Trump Jet”.
Not yet, I don’t think but we’re very very close.
And I love it when people here post twitter retorts so you are free to ignore what the Fuckwit in the White House says and just post all the responses.
hahahahaha
And you campaigned on better, cheaper, and more coverage. Given that the Senate bill offers only a temporary (and vastly inferior) replacement, McCain is a lot closer to meeting his promise than you are.
I wonders if donnie has ever personally changed a burnt out lightbulb …?
(yeah …silly question) … Sooo …
It’s valid to wonders exactly how many donnies it would take ? ? …