Trump takes another swipe at ailing McCain in CPAC speech

President Donald Trump resumed his on-again, off-again feud with Sen. John McCain on Friday by taking yet another swipe at the Arizona Republican over his vote last year that derailed GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Speaking at CPAC, the American Conservative Union's annual gathering of the right in Washington, D.C., Trump gestured up and down with his thumb as he talked about "one senator." While clearly referencing McCain, Trump did not mention him by name. 

"Remember, one person walked into a room, when he was supposed to go this way (thumb up), and he said he was going this way (thumb up), and he walked in and he went this way (thumb down), and everyone said, 'What happened? What was that all about?' Boy, oh boy," Trump said.

In a vote in the early hours of July 28, McCain on the Senate floor famously gave a thumbs down to the Republican "skinny repeal" of key "Obamacare" provisions, killing it.

"Who was that? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know," Trump asked the audience, which responded by shouting McCain's name.

"I don't want to be controversial, so I won't use his name," Trump said. "What a mess. But it's all happening anyway."

At an August rally in downtown Phoenix, Trump similarly slammed McCain without naming him. And Trump has repeatedly blasted McCain over his health care vote.

McCain, 81, is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma. In December, he was hospitalized in Bethesda, Maryland, for a viral infection and for side effects related to his chemotherapy and radiation treatment. 

McCain has been in Arizona since Dec. 17 and it is unclear when he will return to Washington, D.C. Meghan McCain, his daughter, has said concerns about this year's harsh flu season have helped stop McCain from traveling. 

Meghan McCain also told Politico earlier this month that Trump assured her he would stop attacking her father.

"I don’t believe he would go there again,” Meghan McCain, a co-host of ABC's The View, told Politico. “I don’t think at this point in his administration it would be beneficial to him in any way.”

Though still smarting from McCain's "no" vote on the health-care legislation, Trump said the better approach may be to just dismantle the Affordable Care Act "piece by piece by piece."

Getting rid of "Obamacare" — the GOP's nickname for former President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act that became law in 2010 — has been a priority of Trump's. The Republican tax-reform package that passed late last year eliminated the law's individual mandate, which required Americans who can afford health care coverage to purchase it.

"The individual mandate essentially wipes it out, so I think we may be better off," Trump said. "And people are getting great health-care plans and we're not finished yet."

Nowicki is The Republic's national political reporter. Follow him on Twitter, @dannowicki.

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