McCain was approached minutes before the vote by Pence and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. ....After speaking to Pence and Graham for some time, McCain walked across the floor to tell Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senators Dick Durbin, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Dianne Feinstein that they had his vote. Feinstein embraced him as voting began.
The New York Times on Trump's attempt to strong-arm Lisa Murkowski:
On the other side, the Trump administration twisted arms. Mr. Trump directed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to call Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to remind her of issues affecting her state that are controlled by the Interior Department, according to people familiar with the call, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Ms. Murkowski, one of two Republicans to vote against starting the health care debate, confirmed to reporters that she had received a call from Mr. Zinke, but declined to describe the details. However, people familiar with the call described her reaction to it as “furious.”
Isn't that called extortion?
The Atlantic:
Late Thursday afternoon, McCain and Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin held a surreal press conference to denounce a policy that, just hours later, two of them would vote to advance. They said they would only vote for the skinny repeal as a means to an end—a vehicle to set up a House-Senate conference committee that would allow Republicans another chance to work out a broader replacement bill. “The skinny bill as policy is a disaster. The skinny bill as a replacement for Obamacare is a fraud,” Graham declared.
“I need assurances from the speaker of the House, and his team, that if I vote for the skinny bill, it will not become the final product,” he continued. “If I don’t get those assurances, I am a no, because I am not going to vote for a pig in a poke, and I’m not going to tell people back in South Carolina that this product actually replaces Obamacare, because it does not. It is a fraud.”
....Ryan’s assurance was enough to win over Graham and Johnson. Days removed from a speech decrying his own party’s handling of health care,
More from the Atlantic article on Paul Ryan's "wink wink":
Democrats pleaded with their Republican colleagues to reject Ryan’s offer. “Don’t delude yourself that this bill won’t become law. There is a very good chance that it will,” Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut warned on the Senate floor. He excoriated Republicans for unveiling their bill just hours before the vote, and he likened the underlying policy to “arson.” “This process is an embarrassment,” Murphy said. “This is nuclear-grade bonkers what is happening here tonight.”
The Atlantic also reports that the hour delay in voting was due to Pence and McConnell trying to convince McCain:
A vote planned for shortly after midnight on Friday was delayed by more than an hour after top Republicans—first McConnell and Vice President Mike Pence—huddled with the Arizonan in an effort to change his mind. But McCain, trying to live up to his maverick image one more time, would not budge.
Roll Call doesn't mention cheers, only gasps, when McCain voted:
Updated 3:10 a.m. | In a dramatic early Friday morning vote, the Senate voted down the Republican effort to overhaul the U.S. health insurance system, 49-51, with GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona’s dramatic “no” — to gasps in the chamber — providing the key vote to send the bill to defeat.
(I actually didn't hear either, but maybe C-Span was muting the sound from the Gallery to make the roll caller's voice more prominent -- or maybe I missed it while updating my live post.)
Roll Call also reports Pence tried to convince McCain for "more than" 20 minutes, not an hour.
Pence himself spent more than 20 minutes trying to get McCain to change his mind.
I'm not sure why Republicans were surprised:
Republicans were confident shortly before the vote they could get to a 50-50 tie, and bring in Pence to break it. Before he cast his “no” vote, McCain had gathered with a sizable group of jovial Democrats on the other side of the Senate chamber. He returned to the Republican side, walking right past Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Roll Call also says "He defied prudent medical guidance" in returning to Washington to vote. It then recounts all the positives in his career, but misses it's most glaring failure: His hail-Mary pass of choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate. Before we canonize him, lets not forget that -- or that McCain's vote would have made no difference had Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins not voted the same way.
