CHANDLER, Arizona – Vice President Kamala Harris invoked late Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) infamous thumbs-down moment that sunk Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act back in 2017 during her second visit to the state in two weeks as she seeks to court GOP and Independent voters .
Speaking to voters packed inside an event center on the Gila River Indian Reservation, Harris recalled the night the Arizona Senator bucked his party’s leadership and then-President Donald Trump by joining two moderate Republicans to scuttle the repeal of the ACA.
“It required one more vote to keep it intact and that vote was the late great John McCain,” Harris said to applause and boisterous cheers. “A great American, a war hero, John McCain.”
“It was like out of a movie – the wooden doors broke open and John McCain came walking into the well of the U.S. Senate and said ‘no ya don’t’,” Harris said, reenacting McCain’s thumbs down motion. “No ya don’t, No ya don’t.”
Harris and her campaign have actively been working to recruit moderate Republicans and Independents in the state where McCain is still beloved. Trump feuded for years with the Arizona Senator, calling him “not a war hero” nine years ago, and continues to attack him six years after his death.