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mcconnell comes in, various floor leaders doing the same. we can't tell what's happening. and i'm hope you can. >> brian, the person i'm watching in all of this is john mccain. who came into this chamber for a first vote a little while ago. nodded along at a closing speech by senator schumer, and has been the focus of a ton of attention from other republicans in the room, including the vice president. he occasionally appears on the top of your screen here as the senate well picture change from time to time. sort of the basis of those cameras kind of flips around. keep an eye on john mccain. he has been sitting side by side with his good friend lindsey graham for much of this, and getting a lot of attention from republican leaders. if john mccain decides not to vote for this bill, this bill will not move forward. mccain was one of several senators to give a press conference today. he was one of the most outspoken people who said i don't want this bill to become law. but he was potentially willing to vote for it if he had

assurances he was comfortable with. that speaker ryan would take to it conference, as you said, this kind of christmas tree that they could then dress back up. earlier in the night, he told reporters he wasn't satisfied by what he had heard from speaker ryan. and brian, he stopped talking about it. i ran into him in a hallway i don't know, an hour and a half ago, tried to ask him about it. would not say another word about his vote. all eyes in the chamber are on john mccain right now. >> all right. and as garrett spoke at around the 12:00 mark on your screen, there is chuck schumer, the democratic lead who are came down to talk to senator klobuchar and a few other democrats who are leaning in. angus king of maine coming down the aisle, leaning into here. senator schumer's conversation. on the left-hand side of the screen, you have the senator from texas, cornyn, talking to enzi from wyoming. down the bottom of the screen you have corker of tennessee making a point.

but this is all we have seen thus far. it is not an expression of opinion for people in our line of work to call a little attention to the disgust with what we're seeing. ali velshi joins us in the studio. >> it's crazy. why does the senate, a governing body, a legislature need to do this? find the bill you want. get to it the way you're supposed to get to it. arrange to have the votes for it. and then have a vote. they have completely gone backwards with. this it sounds like they've spent the better part of the day figuring out what they can get votes for. >> around lunchtime they started throwing stuff into the hopper. >> what will you vote for? if you do this, you'll lose these votes. we now have a bill that is the wildebeest of legislation. it's little parts of all sorts of things that will satisfy some that it is an obamacare repeal. it will not satisfy others. so what it does it is takes certain things away from obamacare. the mandate for individuals to get insurance, the mandate for

corporations with more than 50 employees to provide insurance. now what that means is the insurance companies got into obamacare on the understanding there would be lots of people insured, and that's how they could cover everybody for preexisting conditions. that's what is being taken way tonight. so what you're taking away is the mechanism by which universal health care can take place. but you're not replacing it with anything. the danger here, as you said, is there are a local whol le lot o senators who don't want this to become law. and the dang fers what happens tonight does become law. >> in the relatively small industry of people who have been minority and majority leaders, speakers of the house, boy, do they hate to pull a piece of legislation. >> right. >> we've seen it happen in the house over health care. we may see it happen here tonight. there is way too much talk, and lack of activity happening in the well of the senate for after 1:00 a.m., after all, it is now

the last friday in july. and that is the united states senate. busting to wrap this up. but uthere is evidently nothing to discuss or consider yet. we are still waiting for them to gavel out and conclude the last voting session over the last amendment, which we expected to go to go to defeat and now it's kind of conversation groups up and down the aisle. >> worth noting that john mccain came to the floor, a week after being diagnosed with cancer. and he gave a stirring speech about how we should revert to regular order and have debates and hearings and have the committees. work up a bill the way it's supposed to go. and then garrett brings up this interesting point that he said today unless he gets assurances, john mccain gets assurances from paul ryan, that the house will not simply go with this.

they will actually allow it to be debated and changed. he won't support it. and then we don't know what he is doing now. he may now may be the linchpin on this legislation. >> ron klain is with us. and we're happy to have him with us, especially at this late hour here on the east coast. ron is a veteran democrat around the democratic politics for a long time. chief of staff to al gore among others he has worked closely with, including a couple of presidents here and there. can you believe what we're witnessing? >> you know, brian, earlier you said this is a christmas tree. i think msnbc's lawyers better get ready for a libel suit from the christmas tree association. this is a wildebeest, whatever it was called before. i came to work on capitol hill for the first time 37 years ago. and in my 37 years, i've never seen anything like that. we're rewriting the rules for 1/6 of the american economy tonight. and the senate is going to vote

on a bill that just a few hours ago lindsey graham called a disaster and a fraud. >> and a pig in a poke. >> and he is going to vote for it. that's what the people are voting for it call the bill. so you can imagine what other people think of the bill. it's called skinny. it's not skinny at all. it slashes our investment in public health. it really undermines people's protection for the minimum benefits. people's premiums will go up 20%. major employers don't have to provide health coverage anymore. it is a major rewrite of 1/6 of the economy. they're going to do it on a few pieces of paper written a few hours ago with a vote taken at two income the morning. pardon the cliche, but this is no way to run a railroad. >> oh, look at this. john mccain has just wandered over in to the democrat side of the aisle. he is talking to schumer. klobuchar. feinstein is leaning in there. i see coons of delaware.

i see dish ban. this is a moment. here is bernie sanders. elizabeth warren. murray is coming in. >> they're all having a good laugh. >> thank you for that, whoever in the control room just zoomed in for us. >> those of a certain age will remember the ef hutton commercials. this gentleman appears to be working in the well of the senate is talking to the senators. whatever this turns out to be, it's an interesting sight. >> important to know, as we mentioned, john mccain becomes the linchpin here. >> you just got finished making that point. >> it all matters what john mccain thinks or does tonight. he gave a very meaningful speech

about how broken the senate is the other day. he said he is coming back soon. and he is going to make people regret the nice things they said about him when he was diagnosed with his cancer. but a number of people in the last 24 hours, a number of senators have said go with that speech you made. live by that rule. what is it that you are going to do tonight? and that remains the mystery. >> there was a moment there that spoke of two things. he just put his arm around senator feinstein. and two things can come away from just a simple gesture. number one, that's who john mccain is. he has always -- as much as he has been a strident republican at times, obviously former standard bearer of that party, he has been able and willing to reach across the aisle. sometimes physically. you're also reminded when john mccain makes a physical gesture like that of the inability, the limits physically on john mccain. he can't lift his arms over a certain level because of the

5 1/2 years he spent as a prisoner of war. which just becomes part of the aura of john mccain. part of what you think about when you think about the man, when you see him in the well of the senate. he is not like the other 99 in one very critical way. and it's why he held them in rapt attention when he came back from the surgery 12 days after the surgery that later revealed that he was dealing with a glioblastoma, a very, very serious malignant brain tumor. i put before the court of opinion this tweet by claire mccaskill of missouri. there is now a glimmer of hope. senator mccaskill tweets that we will stop this and hopefully start over in a bipartisan way to stabilize insurance markets and bring down costs. ali velshi, have they lost their minds? this sounds very sensible. >> it does.

and it's important to note that there are two parts of obamacare for most people. there are the individual insurance market. >> right. >> it's about 7% of all americans actually. and then the medicaid expansion. the medicaid part is probably the bigger part of it. within the individual markets, some people saw their insurance rates go up. >> average people, healthy families saw their rates go up astronomically. and that's a real problem with this. part of the problem here is that the health and human services, the government has to give money to the insurance companies. that was part of obamacare to subsidize low income people who were being insured. and the president and tom price have continued the say they may not do that. that is now what has triggered remarkable instability in these markets and resulted in premiums going up. if this bill passes tonight, more insurance companies will say we may not be able to be in this market. now they only get to make that choice once a year. so you'll see it at the beginning of 2018.

15 million people according to the congressional budget office could lose their insurance if this bill goes through. >> former florida republican congressman david jolly was with us on the 11th hour broadcast tonight, remains with us probably against his will. congressman, if these reports of any sign of cooperation, transparency and bipartisanship breaking out at this late hour, they could just ruin washington. >> well, you're right, brian. look, this is mccain's night. each generation sees a lion of the senate emerge. and tonight we see if he is a maverick or not. but this are a couple of other things we're seeing tonight. first, this is a divided republican party, right? something we know that they ran on for seven years. we're seeing the division. we also see tonight that trump is not the wholesale leader of the party. this is a republican president who has been unable to lead his party to consensus on repeal. best case, if they pass this tonight, they're just forestalling a final vote on a bill that as you've reported tonight, they still don't agree

on, because they've never sold it to the three constituencies. ali talked about two. i talk about three there. those whoed a expanded coverage. those who receive financial assistance. and those who did see their plans disrupted through higher premiums or changed plans. republicans have never sold each of those three constituencies on their plan. they haven't even been able to sell their colleagues on capitol hill. that's why they're in the pickle they're in tonight. >> i've just been handed this from jonathan martin at "the new york times." and again, let's keep the picture on the man of the hour. john mccain. i think congressman jolly is right. i think ali velshi is right and ron klain. jonathan martin just said on twitter, "news: two arizona republicans with direct knowledge tell me they now anticipate mccain will vote no on skinny." >> wow. >> again, we apologize on behalf of our elected representatives that anything has been labeled skinny. it is a piece of legislation

that potentially affects millions of americans. garrett haake, our correspondent in the rotunda. garrett, it's true and maybe it isn't, but is a difficult person to put pressure on. ask the north vietnamese. the other person getting a lot of pressure is lisa murcowski who was a no vote and she took a tweet from the president about this. that was about the interior secretary trying to put pressure on here. we can't see her on the floor on the camera angles, but the producer in the room said there is a large group of republicans around her on the floor potentially working on her as one of the other people who was thought to be a likely or possible no vote and trying to get last minute arm twisting from her. i can't help but think this is part of where the president's handling of congress and handling of these senators and these personalities could come back to bite republicans. it's not as if this

administration and john mccain have ever been close. after the last 36 hours especially, it's hard to see why lisa murcowski would feel good will to go along with anything. >> look at the bottom of the screen around 7:00 on the clock face, john mccain, mike pence, who is in the chamber in case he need his function as tie breaker. and now orrin hatch is talking to john mccain. i'm sure we will learn what is happening and what's being said to fill in the gaps of these pictures where we are left to surmise. lindsey graham going into the cloak room. mike pence the vice president right behind him. john mccain has now walked up the aisle. it will be interesting to learn what we don't know about these pictures. just what is going on.

again, far from optimal for a majority leader to have to pull something back from the floor, back from consideration, but it's a feeling that speaker ryan knows. >> they had to go through that in the house and had to go through it in the senate. to people like us who watch this, it's all been surprising. it hasn't happened any faster as a result of puttinging the bills out earlier and not having them succeed. john mccain's view as is lindsey graham's and lisa murcowski is this bill is not satisfying the needs we have to get. why don't we take the necessary time and go through the process. senator collins and mccain and lindsey graham and others say let's get democrats involved and get a bill that everyone can own a little bit of. the danger with this bill right now if it were to pass is that it can do so much damage to the

health care system in america. republicans will end up owning that. the pressure from the white house seems to be to get a bill passed. that's what you are seeing play out in front of us. >> schumer, reed, booker and blumenthal. physically huddling over health care. i apologize for the quality of the pictures. we put it through a doubler to zoom in on the vignettes and we lose the high definition and it goes back to being a bit more of an oil painting than we would like. it's our only choice because these locked in camera locations we don't have a joy stick where we can zoom in on the senators at will. this is what the senate gives the television network and we are trying to make the most of the pictures we are getting while we are trying to guess what is going on. 1:19 a.m. friday morning here in new york and of course to the south in washington. on the east coast, this is the last friday of the month of

july. the summer break, the vacation, the recess that is looming for the u.s. senate as we look at the capitol dome looms with added importance this summer because of the threat that the president will fire the attorney general and try to appoint a new one in what's being called a recess appointment. a common thing in washington made less common in recent years by the fact that the senate tries to stay in session with a skeleton crew and never go out of session during recess to prevent exactly that kind of thing. also as a matter of fact, a recess appointment is only good until the next congress. this is live of the crowd outside the congress. decidedly more energetic than the senators in the well of the senate.

>> and a little younger. >> they are looking at their devices and trying to follow what we are trying to follow. that is usually on twitter. from some journalists and some senators themselves. just what is going on. there is a whole lot of talking. that's all we know right now. so ron, if common sense takes hold of any or all of this, the majority leader shelves it? >> we will see. he may put them to a vote to cast the votes. they don't look to take a vote and lose, but he may want to have people show their cards. i want to go back to what was said a few minutes ago. if john mccain votes yes, mcconnell and trump win. end of story. if he votes no, all eyes shift to lisa murcowski. what you have seen is the president made it virtually impossible for lisa murcowski to switch to yes.

to publicly threaten her and having the president threaten her and having her say i'm going to defend my state, if she switched now, it looks like the threats worked on her. they painted themselves into a corner where they put her vote out of reach and mccain is the only available vote. obviously saying senator mccain is a national hero and a second senator also is fighting cancer. there is less focus on her. she gave a very impassioned speech earlier about the compassion that senators have shown her and her battle to fight cancer and urging them to show the same compassion to american who is need preexisting condition coverage this bill would strip away. >> she just came back from her home in hawaii. she is in the midst of her first round of treatment.

she has been very public about her diagnosis and her treatment and how it is all very much jermaine of this discussion. how are her constituents in the state of hawaii going to fare under what eventually comes out of this chamber? while we are on the kind of civics lesson that forces us to think about these 100 senators and how different the states are that they represent, think about senators like those from hawaii and alaska, how difficult it is for them to get home. and back to washington. the senators from maryland, delaware, virginia, pennsylvania, new jersey and new york in some cases can sleep at home. >> a train ride home every night. >> it is so difficult for them to get home and see the folks.

>> they have something in common for different reasons. mccain is a national hero as ron said. he was imprisoned and refused release. lisa murcowski run a write in campaign. >> you don't see that often. >> you don't. she is not particularly scared of donald trump. in alaska in the last 72 hours, the groups that propelled her to victory when she won that write in campaign reactivated and run ads on the radio. she was supported by indigenous groups in many cases because she was running against someone that they didn't like. there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? the ayes are 48 and nays are 52. the motion to commit is not agreed to. >> that's a previous democratic measure. anything said now will have to do with the central vote.

>> request the ayes and nays. >> is there a second? there is? call the role. >> mr. alexander. ms. baldwin. -- roll call. >> no. >> no. >> mr. blunt. no. >> mr. booker. >> no. >> mr. boseman. >> mr. brown. >> no. >> mr. burr. >> ms. cant well. mr. cardon. >> no. >> mr. carper.

>> no. >> mr. casey. >> no. >> mr. cassidy. >> aye. >> this is the vote. and we are left to read the tea leaves along with you. obviously we will keep a tally. we just saw along with you lindsey graham offer a thumbs up to someone. there is corn in of texas and the vice president. john mccain left the chamber together again. back inside the vote. >> mr. corker. >> aye. >> mr. corn in. >> mr. cortez mast. >> mr. cotton.

mr. crapo. >> mr. cruz. >> mr. dans. >> mr. donnelley. >> no. >> ms. duckworth. >> no. >> mr. durbin. >> no. >> mr. enzy. >> mrs. ernst. >> aye. >> mrs. feinstein. >> no. >> mrs. fisher. >> aye. >> mr. blake. mr. franken. >> no. >> mr. gardner. >> mrs. jill brand.

>> no. >> mr. graham. mr. grassley. >> ms. harris. >> no. >> mr. hatch. >> mr. hinrich. >> no. >> mr. hide camp. >> no. >> mr. helder. >> ms. hirono. >> no. >> mr. hoven. >> mr. inhoff. mr. isaacson. mr. johnson. >> aye. >> mr. cane. >> no. >> mr. kennedy. mr. king. mr. langeford. >> aye. >> mr. leahy. >> no.

>> mr. lee. >> aye. >> mr. man chin. >> no. >> mr. marky. >> no. >> mr. mccain. >> mrs. mccaskill. >> no. >> mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. >> no. >> mr. merckly. mr. mor ran. ms. murcowski. mrs. murray. mr. nelson. >> no. >> mr. paul. >> aye. >> mr. purdue. >> mr. peters.

>> no. >> mr. portman. >> john mccain gestured to get the attention of the clerk. john mccain voted no. you heard applause from the democratic side. bernie sanders is still animated about it. republicans are on the near side of the chamber and connell stands at the end. >> mr. sanders? >> no. >> mr. sass. >> mr. shots. mr. schumer. >> no. >> mr. scott. >> mr. shelby.

>> aye. >> mr. strange. mr. sullivan. >> aye. >> mr. tester. >> no. >> mr. thune. mr. tillis. >> aye. >> mr. toomey. >> aye. >> mr. yu dal. >> no. >> mr. van hol in. >> mr. warner. ms. warren. >> no. >> mr. white house. mr. wicker. mr. widen. mr. young. >> aye.

>> senators voting in the affirmative. al xander, blasso, blunt, boseman, burr, kcapito. cassidy, cochran, corker, cornen, crapo, dans, enzi, ernst. fisher, flake, gardner, graham,

grassley, hatch, hoven, inhoff, isaacson, kennedy, langefort, lee, paul, purdue. portman, rich, roberts, rounds, rubio, scott, shelby, strange, sullivan, thune, tillis, toomey, wicker, young. senators voting in the negative. baldwin, bennett, blumenthal, booker, brown, cant well, carden, carper, casey, collins, coons, cortez masto, donnelly, duckworth, durbin, feinstein,

franken, jill brand, harris, haszen, hinrich, height camp, hirono, king, king -- leahy, manchin, marky, mccain, mccaskill, menendez, americaly, murcowski, murphy, murray, nelson, peters, reed, sanders, shots, schumer, shaheen, tester, udahl, van hollen, warner, warren, white house, widen. >> mr. moran? aye. >> mr. cotton.

mr. cotton, aye. >> you will also note the vice president no longer visible. no longer needed to cast a deciding vote. senator heller from nevada walking up the aisle. >> mr. cruz. mr. cruz, aye. >> having gone through the heart of the order, the lineup as it were, this is where they go back through for senators who were not in the chamber or for some reason not prepared to vote. we are all going to figure out

>> so heller is a yes. largely considered to be perhaps the most vulnerable senator in the chamber during the next election cycle. here comes the majority leader. there goes the majority leader. seated once again. he perhaps is waiting for the gavel. yep. but he did, you saw as soon as john mccain cast a ballot, he took a speech out of a folder. i guess there were two speeches. he is not looking as energized as he was earlier. >> mr. sass. mr. sass, aye.

>> the gentlemen's voice we hear is coming from the second desk of three. leaning forward and looking over his vote tally sheet. the senate clerks are meticulous and consistently excellent, especially in their announcements and reading of the roll. is sitting next to senator murcowski. very top of your screen. he is sitting in the seat she was sitting in and. >> there is two gop no votes. graham voted yes.

>> he was one of the three senators who expressed concern to paul ryan earlier. this doesn't proceed to be an actual bill. others were satisfied by the injury. john mccain was not. i'm being told this is live picture. don't have tell you what side they are on. senator corker from tennessee walking around. senator rubio in the aisle talking to senator cornin of texas. >> sheldon white house talking to the clerk.

i happen to be looking at sanders when the mccain vote came in, visibly reacted. >> he was really the only vote that got a reaction in the room. that was the one as garrett pointed out, absolutely everybody not just in that claim ber, but in the country was waiting for. >> there is corker and warner from virginia. garrett, we will stay on the pictures from inside the chamber. it's simply too interesting. hang on. >> looks like they are handing the tally over. >> the stenographer has come forward and we could be on the edge of announcement here. >> anyone wishing to change their vote? if not the ayes are 49 and the nays are 51. the amendment is not agreed to. majority leader?

>> unanimous consent that hr 1628 be returned to the calendar. >> objection? without objection. >> so mr. president, this is clearly a disappointing moment from skyrocketing costs to plummeting choices and collapsing markets. our constituents have suffered through an awful lot under obamacare. we thought they deserved better. it's why 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, most of us did. we kept our commitments.

we worked hard and everybody on this side can certainly attest to the fact that we worked really hard to try to develop a consensus for a better way forward. i want to thank everybody in this conference for the endless amount of time that they spent trying to achieve a consensus to go forward. i also want to thank the president and the vice president who couldn't have been more involved and more helpful. so yes, this is a disappointment. a disappointment indeed. our friends over in the house, we thank them as well. i regret our efforts were simply not enough this time.

now imagine many of our colleagues on the other side of celebrating. probably pretty happy about all of this. but the american people are hurting and they need relief. our friends on the other side decided early on they didn't want to engage with us and in a serious way, in a serious way to help those suffering under obamacare. they did everything they could to prevent the senate from providing a better way forward including such things as reading amendments for endless amounts of time. such things as holding up nominations for key positions in the administration. because they were unhappy that we were trying to find a way to something better than obamacare.

so i expect that they are pretty satisfied tonight. i regret to say they succeeded in that effort. so now i think it's appropriate to ask one of their ideas. it will be interesting to see. what they suggest as the way forward. for myself, i can say i am pretty safe in saying for those on this side of the aisle that bailing out insurance companies, bailing out insurance companies with no thought of any kind of reform is not something i want to be part of. and i suspect that not many folks over here that are interested in that.

but it will be interesting to see what they have in mind. quadrupling down on the failures of obamacare with the single payer system. we had that vote earlier thanks to the senator from montana. almost everybody voted present. they didn't want to make a decision about whether they were for or against socialized medicine. the government take over of everything. european health care. only four of them weren't afraid to say they didn't think that was a good idea. maybe that's what they want to offer. we would be happy to have the debate with the american people.

so it's time for our friends on the other side to tell us what they have in mind. and we will see how the american people feel about their ideas. so i regret that we are here, but i want to say i am proud of the vote i cast tonight. it is consistent with what we told the american people we would try to accomplish in four straight elections if they gave us a chance. i want to thank all of my colleagues on this side of the aisle to do everything they did to keep that commitment. we tried to accomplish the right thing for the country. and our only regret tonight, our only regret is that we didn't

achieve what we had hoped to accomplish. i think the american people are going to regret that we couldn't find a better way forward. as i said, we look forward to our colleagues on the other side suggesting what they have in mind. so now, mr. president, it's time to move on and i ask unanimous consent that at 10:00 on july 28th, tomorrow, the senate proceed cat ender number hr the house passed national defense authorization bill.

>> mr. president? >> i object. >> objection is heard. >> i suggest that. >> mr. president. >> give us a second. >> the clerk will call the roll. >> mr. alexander. >> they have killed the mikes from the floor of the senate. you heard the dod, the pentagon bill to come over what is actually this morning in about eight hours. you also heard the majority leader in what was, make no mistake, a mini moment in the drama. let's listen to schumer. >> without objection? >> thank you, mr. president and first, let me say it's been a

long, long road for both sides. each side had sincere convictions and we are at this point. so i would say three things. first, i would suggest we turn the page. it's time to turn the page. i would say to my dear friend, the majority leader, we are not celebrating. we are relieved that millions and millions of people who would have been so drastically hurt by the proposals put forward will retain their health care and be able to deal with preexisting conditions, deal with nursing homes and opioids that medicaid paid for. we are relieved not for ourselves, but for the american people. as i said over and over again, obamacare was hardly perfect. it did a lot of good things, but it needs improvement.

i hope one part of turning that page is that we go back to regular order, work in the committees together to improve obamacare. we have good leaders. the senator from tennessee and the senator from washington. the senator from utah. the senator from oregon. they have worked well together in the past. they can work well together in the future. there is suggestions that we are interested in that come from members on the other side of the aisle. senator from maine and senator from louisiana. let's turn the page and work together to improve our health care system. let's turn the page in another way. all of us were so inspired. by the speech and the life of the senator from arizona.

he asked us to go back to regular order. to bring back the senate that some of us who were here have been here a while remember. maybe this can be a moment where we start doing that. both sides will have to give. the blame hardly falls on one side or the other. but if we can take this moment, a solemn moment, and start working this body the way it had always worked until the last decade or so with both sides to blame for the deterioration, we will do a better job for our country, better job for this body, a better job for ourselves. and finally, i'm glad that the leader asked us to move to ndaa. we need to do it. i can say on this side of the

aisle we will move expeditiously. i know that the senator from rhode island worked with the us senator from arizona on a list of amend ams that can be agreed to and we can finish the bill up rather quickly. for the majority leader, there are other things we can do rather quickly including moving a lot of nominations. so we can work together. our country demands it. every place in every corner of the country where we go, the number one thing we are asked and i know this because i talked to my colleagues from the other side of the aisle. can't you guys work together? let's give it a shot. let's give it a shot. i yield the floor. >> again, that was a moment we witnessed tonight on the senate floor by the way you heard the

acronym, ndaa, the enormous defense authorization with jack reed from rhode island working with john mccain on that. that starts later this morning. you heard the majority leader before mr. schumer, the minority leader spoke. almost come up with a line of relitigating the health care debate encapsulated. he used the phraseology that is almost swear words on the right. socialized medicine. european health care. his remarks when distilled amounted to we have a 52-seat majority, but could not hold it. could not produce it. minority over to you. senator schumer has gone along with the john mccain suggestion to return to the kind of catch all euphemism in the senate of regular order. people know what that means.

that's the committee process developing legislation, health care bill would come out of the health committee and so on. but this moment came as you heard the majority leader say, a disappointing moment. that is an under statement for the republican party that holes the white house, the house, and the senate. there will be no movement forward on health care. lawrence o'donnell whose hour this normally is on reair after airing initially on the east coast is with us by telephone. lawrence, sum up what you just witnessed having spent many years in and around the united states senate. >> i have been on the senate floor for dramatic votes. i never have been on the senate floor for a vote as dramatic as this. because this was a vote we didn't know the out come of before the vote. we usually do.

no matter how close they are. this was decided by john mccain as it was developing and it became clear that's how it would be decide. what we saw tonight was in the end of this story which really this drama really began when john mccain boarded a plane after brain surgery to participate this week and gave a speech that indicated as i said at the time he gave the speech, it indicated he would vote this way, but he confused people by voting with republicans on a procedural step. several spots where a commentator said john mccain just voted to take health care away which he didn't do. this was the vote. this was the real vote. he voted to preserve the affordable care act as it stands tonight.

>> what you are hearing is the majority leader again, but it'st not anything we need to be associated with. it's about the calendar moving ahead and judicial nominations. because of the point lawrence just raised, i want to go to david jaly who said on our broadcast, it has been since thursday night, congressman. a full day ago, you said this was the moment for john mccain to have a maverick moment of his own and i have to ask you what it was like to witness. >> it is. this is a moment in history. if you consider the narrative of obamacare. it was signed into law and the subsequent elections when republicans ran on the repeal. mitch mcconnell gave a funeral speech.pl the death of a seven-year campaign.

a historic night. john mccain was pivotal. colins and murcowski are owe and represented their ll constituencies. john mccain was the gop presidential nominee in 2008 and mitch mcconnell and donald trump could not develop. a gop presidential nominee would not fall in line with the current administration and the current majority leader's plan on obamacare. this is a historic night. >> lawrence o'donnell, i think the congressman put it nicely there. >> it's true. any senator and any republican senator could leave a brain surgery ward to get up off the hospital bet and then make this journey after receiving that health care to make that journey to washington to then take health care away from tens of millions of people.

that was just an inconceivable character option to me. they came back to vote to take the health care away. this is a much trickier drama that we are watching than it appears on face value. it's entirely possible that mitch mcconnell got what he wanted tonight. that was a very close vote in the senate that the republicans lose. mitch mcconnell knew that the most disastrous out come was to actually pass a repeal of the affordable care act. living with that politically and taking away health care from tens of millions of people would cause mitch mcconnell and the republicans to pay a bigger price than this embarrassment

they are going to face tonight having not been able to deliver on a seven-year promise. many times, many, many times seeing the senate go to a vote where the people voting for something were hoping it would lose because they didn't want to pay the price of it passing, but they wanted to appear to be in favor of it passing. this may very well be one of those nights. >> it will be interesting to see the reaction from the white house. nothing yet. everyone know what is i'm talking about. a new era and a new president who is usually quick to comment on such things. with two minutes left in this hour of coverage. we continue coverage over the next hour. ron has been among the most patient gentlemen here this morning. we will call each other gentlemen, it's like the queue

of the senate chamber. your reaction to the news we just witnessed. >> obama care lives, obamacare lives and it's significant. it is true that john mccain cast the deciding vote, a heroic and historic vote. you have to remember that this is the product of a tremendous amount of grass roots activism. donald trump said he would repeal on day one and it would be easy. they influenced the congress and we are having this discussion not on day one, but here on the eve of august. finally you have to give points to chuck schumer. when trump became president, we talked about how many democrats would schumer lose on every key vote. he held every democrat and that's in my party that we have not seen in a long time. >> thank you for that reaction. absolutely right. sometimes the people of this

country have a funny way of getting their voices heard and injecting themselves into a debate, especially this one that threatened to go on without the advice and consent of the people who are both the boss and the customer under our system of democracy. the people who put all 100 members of the senate into that chamber to do the people's business. garrett is ready to give his live assessment. we will leave this hour quoting the democrat from connecticut saying i ran into john mccain as we walked underground for the senate for the final vote. some day i will get to my grand kids what is he said to me. the words of john mccain who was indeed a profile in courage along with two women in the

republican caucus, senator from alaska murcowski and senator from maine, collins. my colleague and friend ali takes it from here. >> good spending the evening with you. breaking news right now. after seven years of campaigning and long held promises, senate republicans have been soundly defeated in their attempt to repeal obamacare. the loss comes after they launched one last ditch effort to kill the bill that they have derided for so long, with a peared down skinny obamacare repeal bill three hours after taking up a late night volt that resulted in this failure. it looks like it came down to senator john mccain who received a round of applause as he walked into the chamber signalling a thumbs down and keeping the affordable care act the law of the land. with us through the course of the evening following this closely, i think that's your camera on senators. me how it withstand down from your perspective.