President Donald Trump led the crowd at a campaign-style rally in Nashville on Tuesday in booing Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as Trump, again, attacked the senior senator for his “no” vote on repealing and replacing Obamacare last year.
“We had it done, folks, it was done, and then early in the morning somebody turned their hand in the wrong direction,” Trump said, referencing McCain without using his name. “The person that voted that way only talked repeal and replace. He campaigned on it.
Trump leads the crowd into booing cancer-ridden Sen. John McCain for voting against ACA repeal.
"That cost us a lot, and nobody knew that was going to happen, because we had it done. And the person who voted that way, only talked repeal and replace!" pic.twitter.com/Yx0id0ZBs8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 30, 2018
The jabs on Tuesday evening were the first time Trump has spoken publicly about McCain since it was reported that one of Trump’s communications aides made a morbid joke about McCain “dying” during an internal White House meeting. McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer last year and has been in Arizona recovering from treatment in recent weeks.
Rather than apologize for the remark or discipline the staffer, Kelly Sadler, the White House has used the incident to crack down on leaks by decreasing the number of people invited to participate in daily communications briefings and reportedly making plans to downsize the communications department.
