--- title: Al Franken Recalls John McCain's Health Care Vote description: John McCain’s vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act was a surprise to many, but not to Al Franken. canonical: https://time.com/4883891/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care-vote/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-02T14:13:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:06:13.701Z og:title: Al Franken Recalls the Moment John McCain Voted No og:description: And why he wasn't surprised by McCain's decision og:url: https://time.com/4883891/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care-vote/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dfc51f127684b49/6988d817196cf4e080041488/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Seth Meyers Interviews Senator Al Franken og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Al Franken Recalls the Moment John McCain Voted No twitter:description: And why he wasn't surprised by McCain's decision twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dfc51f127684b49/6988d817196cf4e080041488/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Al Franken Tells Colbert About the Moment John McCain Voted No on Health Care Repeal > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=efc722c4-e48f-495a-b1e0-408cb26a9fa5&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly Aug 2, 2017 2:13 PM UTC  Senator Al Franken speaks at The Great Hall at Cooper Union on August 1, 2017 in New York City. Senator Al Franken speaks at The Great Hall at Cooper Union on August 1, 2017 in New York City. Rob Kim—Getty Images by [Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly Aug 2, 2017 2:13 PM UTC [John McCain’s vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act](http://ew.com/news/2017/07/28/health-care-repeal-fail-john-mccain/) was a surprise to many, but not to Al Franken. Appearing on Tuesday’s _Late Show_, the Democratic senator from Minnesota explained why he saw McCain’s decision coming, and it had to do with the whereabouts of Vice President Mike Pence. “I suspected, but I didn’t know for sure because Pence had left the room,” chuckled Franken. “So that told me that he was going to vote no.” The thumbs down from the Republican senator sparked applause from the gallery and some staffers, but Franken explains that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer put a quick end to the celebration. “Everyone stopped because we didn’t want to gloat,” explained Franken. “And we shouldn’t gloat; this is serious, serious stuff.” Watch the clip above. _The Late Show_ airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS. _This_ [_article_](http://ew.com/tv/2017/08/01/al-franken-john-mccain-voted-no-health-care-repeal-late-show/) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4883891/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care-vote/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4883891/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care-vote/"},"headline":"Al Franken Tells Colbert About the Moment John McCain Voted No on Health Care Repeal","datePublished":"2017-08-02T14:13:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:06:13.701Z","description":"And why he wasn't surprised by McCain's decision","url":"https://time.com/4883891/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care-vote/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","stephen colbert","Late Night Television","al franken"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dfc51f127684b49/6988d817196cf4e080041488/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dfc51f127684b49/6988d817196cf4e080041488/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Seth Meyers Interviews Senator Al Franken","caption":"Seth Meyers Interviews Senator Al Franken","creditText":"Rob Kim—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4883891/al-franken-john-mccain-health-care-vote/","name":"Al Franken Tells Colbert About the Moment John McCain Voted No on Health Care Repeal"}}]}] ```