Trump doubles down on attack of McCain over Obamacare repeal vote

PHOENIX — President Donald Trump is not backing down from his attacks on John McCain over the late senator’s 2017 vote against repealing an Obama-era health care law.

“I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, after meeting with far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Trump added that he was “very unhappy” that McCain voted against repealing the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

“He campaigned on repealing and replacing Obamacare for years, and then it got to a vote and he said, ‘Thumbs down,'” Trump said, claiming that the country would have saved “a trillion dollars”  and had great health care.

“He campaigned, he told us hours before that he was going to repeal and replace and then for some reason — I think I understand the reason — he ended up going thumbs up,” he continued.

“Had we even known that, I think we would’ve gotten the vote because we could’ve gotten someone else. So I think that’s disgraceful.”

Trump had tweeted about the late Arizona Republican over the weekend, touching on the Obamacare vote and accusing him of helping Democrats and the Justice Department’s investigation of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

So it was indeed (just proven in court papers) “last in his class” (Annapolis) John McCain that sent the Fake Dossier to the FBI and Media hoping to have it printed BEFORE the Election. He & the Dems, working together, failed (as usual). Even the Fake News refused this garbage!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2019

McCain’s daughter Meghan responded to the tweet in a Monday taping of her talk show, “The View,” saying Trump criticizes her late father because “he will never be a great man.”

.@MeghanMcCain addresses Pres. Trump’s Saturday tweet criticizing her father Sen. John McCain: “He spends his weekend obsessing over great men because he knows it and I know it and all of you know it — he will never be a great man.”https://t.co/p6oiZYUr74 pic.twitter.com/8HSpllAcEz

— The View (@TheView) March 18, 2019

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told reporters Tuesday that he did not want to comment on the situation because he does not “know all the facts around the dossier.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah weighed in on the feud Tuesday, tweeting that he “can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain.”

I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) March 19, 2019

Trump has had a long history criticizing McCain, who died of brain cancer seven months ago.

Trump first criticized McCain during the 2015 campaign, when he mocked McCain’s time spent in a North Vietnamese prison, where he was repeatedly tortured over more than five years.

“He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said of the former Navy pilot.

He has also allegedly mocked McCain’s physical injuries suffered during his time in captivity, commented on McCain’s health care vote before his State of the Union address in February and mocked sales of McCain’s book.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Peter Samore contributed to this report. 

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