President Donald Trump criticized Sen. John McCain at a campaign rally in Nashville on Tuesday night for having voted against one of the bills that would have repealed Obamacare last year, NBC News reported.
Trump has frequently slammed the Arizona senator, who is battling brain cancer, but has not done so recently.
This was the president's first barb at him since it was reported earlier this month that White House press aide Kelly Sadler had privately told colleagues there was no reason to worry about McCain voting against Trump's nominee for CIA director Gina Haspel because he is "dying anyway."
Trump said at the rally on Tuesday night that his efforts to scrap President Barack Obama's signature health care law were hampered by McCain's decision to vote against it, although he did not mention the senator by name.
"We had it done folks, it was done, and then early in the morning somebody turned their hand in the wrong direction," Trump said. "The person that voted that way only talked repeal and replace. He campaigned on it."
Sadler's comments angered congressmen on both sides of the aisle, although she was not fired, the White House refused to publicly apologize and, in the aftermath, Trump showed more concern about the leaking of the conversation than about the disrespect shown to McCain.
McCain has let it be known that he does not want Trump at his funeral, according to CNN.
Their feud started publicly in the early days of the presidential campaign when, after McCain called Trump's supporters "crazies," Trump ridiculed the senator's time spent as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, saying "he is a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
Trump's criticism on Tuesday night came just hours after he and his aides vowed that the president would be focused entirely on public policy and not on distracting side fights, according to NBC.
However, during the speech Trump also threw barbs at hip-hop star Jay-Z andHouse Minority Nancy Pelosi.
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