speaker of the house paul ryan said they were willing to get to conference. he thought that would be assurance enough. he it wasn t. in the end, john mccain saying it wasn t enough. the risk was too real that this would end up being passed into law. guys, that s exactly why he voted no. now they turn the page perhaps to tax reform. don t they have to let john mccain to take up authorization? reporter: that was the plan, the strategy. another interesting element you want to talk about the drama over the last couple of hours, senator mcconnell was going to pick up the national defense authorization act. that was what was next. senator rand paul objected on the senate floor. it wasn t expected. i m told leadership aides didn t know it was coming, senate armed services aides didn t know it was coming. the idea was to let senator mccain manage the bill he was overseeing. at least for the moment this was going to be his last big effort before he started treatment. by all accounts, se
mitch mcconnell trying to bring senator mccain around. vice president mike pence on the hill to be a potential tie-breaking effort giving his best tie-breaking vote, giving his best effort, handing the phone to mccain on the phone, president trump. that didn t work either. they weren t able to deliver on the promise they ve made year after year after year, and the disappointment on one side and the glee on the other was clear. take a listen to the senate leaders from both sides. now i image ine many of our colleagues on the other side are celebrating. probably pretty happy about all this. our friends on the other side decided early on they didn t want to engage with us in a serious way, a serious way, to help those suffering under obamacare. it s time it turn the page. i would say to my dear friend
efforts to repeal obamacare have failed. the vote came just hours ago. we re live on capitol hill where john mccain s deciding vote left lawmakers and the country stunned. welcome back to early start, everybody. i m dave briggs. wow. that was all so dramatic. what a long night. sure. i m christine romans. it is 4:32 in the east. breaking early this morning on capitol hill just about three hours ago, senate republicans trying to repeal and replace obamacare. that vote came up short when the maverick made his mark. senator john mccain days removed from his cancer diagnosis stunning the chamber, turning thumbs down on the repeal bill. it happened just feet away from republican leader mitch mcconnell, prompting an audible gasp in the chamber. [ gasp ] seven years of repeal efforts have now essentially gone up in smoke leaving a frustrated mitch
it s hard to see them get on board. it would be a massive overhaul. it s unclear to me how much they would like that. we know the medicaid program was extended to cover low-income people. for most cases, that doesn t have any premiums. right. comes at no cost, it s very popular. certainly. people want to make sure the right incentives are aligned and don t want medical costs nestle to take up such necessarily to take up such a huge part of the budget as it does now. right. is it sustainable, that s a whole other question. kimberly leonard from the washington examiner, thank you very much. we ll check back next half hour. the statement from senator john mccain who was the third no-vote and sent this from the beginning, i have believed that obamacare should be repealed and replaced. while the amendment would have repealed some of obamacare s most burdensome regulations, it offered no replacement to actually reform our health care system. the speaker s statement that the
a big question when do they take the ndaa up, will senator mccain be back for it, and why did senator rand paul do this on the floor. some are wondering if it was out of spite, confusion. he said there are serious issues that he has with the bill, as well. yeah, the ndaa was next. this is senator mccain s bill. this is, as one aide told me, his baby. that was blocked. all this coming together kind of in a dramatic kind of view on the floor. these are the things that usually happen behind the scenes, in senator mcconnell s office. we saw it all tonight which was pretty amazing. thank you very much. thanks for bringing us up to speed. kimberly leonard is senior health policy reporter for the washington examiner. if our producers could put up the president s statement again, where he talked about letting it implode and then make a deal. this is what the president said three republicans and 48 democrats let the american people down. as i said from the beginning, let obamacare implode