thumbs down on the repeal bill. it happened feet away from republican leader mitch mcconnell prompting an audible gasp in the chamber. [ gasp ] seven years of repeal efforts have essentially gone up in smoke leaving a frustrated mcconnell to explain on the floor. i and many of my colleagues did as promised and voted to repeal the failed law. we told our constituents we would vote that way. when the moment came, when the moment came, most of us did. two other republican senators, maine s susan collins and alaska s lisa murkowski, joined mccain crossing party lines to vote against the repeal bill. how did this go down behind the scenes and where do leaders go from here?
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
mcconnell to explain on the senate floor. i and many of my colleagues did as we promised and voted to repeal this failed law. we told our constituents we would vote that way, and when the moment did, when the moment came, most of us did. two other republican senators, maine s susan collins and alaska s lisa murkowski, joined mccain to vote against the repeal bill. how did this go down behind the scenes, and where do gop leaders go from here? let s go live to cnn s phil mattingly, who s not slept a wink, live on capitol hill. good morning to you. how did this go down? reporter: clearly the peak vote from mccain. dramatic happenings behind the scenes leading into that.
seven years of repeal efforts have now essentially gone up in smoke leaving a frustrated mitch mcconnell to explain on the senate floor. i and many of my colleagues did as we promised and voted to repeal this failed law. we told our constituents we would vote that way, and when the moment came, when the moment came, most of us did. two other republican senators, maine s susan collins and alaska s lisa murkowski, joined mccain, crossing party lines to vote against the repeal bill. how did this go down behind the scenes? where do gop leaders go from here? we ll go live to phil mattingly on capitol hill. good morning to you, phil. how did this go down late last night and early this morning? reporter: yeah, an amazing moment. to get context from the video you saw, senator mccain voting
came, most of us did. two other republicans senators, maine s susan collins, and alaska s lisa murkowski, they joined mccain, crossing party lines to vote against the repeal bill. so how did this go down behind the scenes and where do gop leaders go from here? let s go live to phil mattingly, still on the capitol hill still at the capitol for us this morning on capitol hill. good morning. reporter: good morning. look, as you note, seven years of campaign promises all came down to one man. it was senator john mccain. it was hours of behind-the-scenes al qaedaing. mitch mcconnell, vice president mike pence, and at one moment, even the president putting a call in to senator mccain trying to sway his vote. guys, it didn t work. becoming the third republican to vote no, essentially sinking the repeal effort entirely. again, we ve talked about this throughout the last couple of weeks, how the process has gone