John McCain gives stirring speech against Obamacare repeal bill – but votes for it twice in one day

'I will not vote for this bill as it is today,' says senator before voting in its favour

John McCain voted twice in favour of pushing forward with Donald Trump’s controversial new health bill – despite telling the US Senate in an impassioned speech he “will not vote for this bill as it is today”.

The senator, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, returned to Washington DC to have his say on the divisive legislation that aims to dismantle Obamacare.

He first voted to begin a debate on the Republican bill, despite having the power to derail the knife-edge vote on the measure that Mr Trump has spent the last week cajoling and seemingly even threatening senators to support.

Mr McCain joined the 51 senators who narrowly passed the motion to proceed with the bill, the bare minimum needed to pass the motion, as 50 senators, including two Republicans, voted against it.

This crucial “yes” vote was incongruously followed by a long speech from the 80-year-old, who condemned his party’s new healthcare plan, calling it a “shell of a bill”.

“I voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue and amendments to be offered,” he said. “I will not vote for this bill as it is today”.

Standing on the Senate floor, a scar from a recent blood clot removal surgery visible over his left eye, the Senator lambasted his party’s leadership. “We’re getting nothing done my friends, we’re getting nothing done,” he said.

On the effort to repeal and replace the American Care Act, known as Obamacare, he added: “All we’ve managed to do is make more popular a policy that wasn’t very popular when we started trying to get rid of it.”

Six hours later, senators voted on the bill’s initial amendment – with Mr McCain, who stood against Barack Obama as a presidential candidate in 2008, again voting in favour of the changes.

While technical in its wording about budget requirements, Tuesday evening’s ballot was seen by many as another vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act itself, which is designed to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s signature healthcare policy.

With nine Republican senators voting against the amendment, it failed to pass with 57 “no” votes compared to 57 “yes” votes, underscoring how hard it will be for the chamber’s divided Republicans to pass a sweeping replacement of the law.

The bill Mr McCain helped to advance – a version of the “repeal and replace” bill passed by the House – is notably unpopular with voters.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will result in 23 million people losing health coverage in the next 10 years. Even as Mr McCain was entering the Capitol, protesters were being removed from it, some of them screaming: “Don’t kill us, kill the bill!”