President Donald Trump lashed out at the late John McCain once again for his controversial vote on the Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare at a rally on Thursday, saying that the late senator "disappointed us a little bit."
"We're giving you already better choices for health care," Trump said during the rally in Missoula, Montana. The president has been campaigning around the country on behalf of vulnerable GOP candidates ahead of the highly contested midterm elections this November.
"I got rid of the individual mandate, which is the worst thing in Obamacare, and we're running the remnants of Obamacare before it expires completely," Trump continued. "You notice your premiums are going up less than they've ever gone up, because we are doing a real job."
The president then criticized McCain for voting against the GOP in their mission to replace the health care law in August 2017, though he did not reference the late senator by name.
"We had the votes to repeal and replace, and somebody disappointed us a little bit," Trump said, referring to McCain's last-minute vote against one of the Republican bills. "But we'll get another shot."
The president has continually attacked McCain for his votes against the so-called "skinny" repeal of Obamacare. In his first vote against the GOP proposal, McCain had just returned to the Senate floor after receiving brain surgery for a tumor.
Criticism of McCain's health care vote was a line frequently used by Trump during campaign events and speeches around the country over the past year. In February, Trump imitated the senator's thumbs-down vote, saying, "What happened? What was that all about?" Then in May, Trump told a rally crowd in Nashville that McCain's action "cost our country a lot." A White House aide reportedly even commented in June that McCain's opinion didn't matter because "he's dying anyway."
Following McCain's death, Trump stopped critiquing McCain at his frequent rallies. Still, Trump kept up the attacks on the senator, albeit largely in private, with one report stating that the president thought McCain's funeral services were "over the top."
Trump did not go to any of the memorial services planned for McCain, though many reports stated that the senator did not invite the president to attend. Speakers at his final funeral service in Washington, D.C., included former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Other controversial remarks made by the president during the rally on Thursday included jokes about a congressman assaulting a reporter.
"Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type," Trump said, garnering cheers from the audience. The congressman, Representative Greg Gianforte, pleaded guilty to the assault in 2017.
The president began the rally by discussing his recent accomplishments, including the confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Trump said that the allegations of sexual misconduct made against the judge were a Democratic "con job."
Trump said that the upcoming election cycle will be an "election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order and common sense."
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Alexandra Hutzler is currently a staff writer on Newsweek's politics team. Prior to joining Newsweek in summer 2018, she was ... Read more
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