General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I found this on reddit about the repeal vote. [View all]Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Trump now knows that the Prez isn't the only one with power. But I think McCain really was wanting to get a bill best for his state, and this wasn't personal. He said he had been working w/the AZ governor on it, and the current bill would be bad for Arizonians, as is the current ACA, so they have to come up with something else.
McCain said the AZ gov's office had a couple of amendments, which McCain has ready, and other Republicans have ideas worked out, none of which have been considered, apparently.
McCain wouldn't have lied to the Prez and Pence beforehand, so my guess is that when Pence asked, McCain told them how he was going to vote. But the roll call is taken beforehand by McConnell's staff, so they know if they have the number needed to pass. So McCain must have indicated either "yes" or "maybe" to them, or they wouldn't have proceeded with the vote.
Because McCain was voting no, then Lindsey Graham and Ron Johnson were free to vote for it, knowing it wouldn't pass. (Johnson, Graham, & McCain gave a press conf. about the bill....all said they didn't want to vote for it, unless they could get a promise from the House that they would take it to conference to change it up, this skinny bill would just be a vehicle for working on a real one, because as it stood, the bill was horrible and they wouldn't go for it.) Graham later said he'd finally gotten a guarantee on that from the House (previously he had said that Paul Ryan said he couldn't guarantee it wouldn't be passed "as is" and go to Trump for signature), so he voted yes. Apparently that guarantee didn't work for McCain.