--- title: Senator Suggests McCain Brain Tumor Explains Obamacare Vote description: Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson suggested John McCain's brain tumor might have affected his decision to vote against the GOP health care bill canonical: https://time.com/4893541/mccain-obamacare-tumor-ron-johnson/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-09T16:30:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T04:54:39.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Senator Suggests McCain Voted 'No' Because of His Tumor og:description: Sen. McCain unexpectedly helped defeat a Republican effort to repeal Obamacare og:url: https://time.com/4893541/mccain-obamacare-tumor-ron-johnson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt040789fa378402bf/6988d9068fd2eefa7f358592/ron-johnson-john-mccain-cancer.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing On Ending Modern Slavery og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senator Suggests McCain Voted 'No' Because of His Tumor twitter:description: Sen. McCain unexpectedly helped defeat a Republican effort to repeal Obamacare twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt040789fa378402bf/6988d9068fd2eefa7f358592/ron-johnson-john-mccain-cancer.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Senator Suggests McCain Voted Against Obamacare Repeal Because of His Brain Tumor  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:54 AM UTCPublished: Aug 9, 2017 4:30 PM UTC  Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and Arizona Sen. John McCain talk during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Ending Modern Slavery: Building on Success on Feb. 15, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and Arizona Sen. John McCain talk during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Ending Modern Slavery: Building on Success on Feb. 15, 2017 in Washington, D.C.Paul Morigi—WireImage/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:54 AM UTCPublished: Aug 9, 2017 4:30 PM UTC Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican, suggested Tuesday that [John McCain’s](http://time.com/4877901/john-mccain-skinny-repeal-vote/) brain cancer [diagnosis](http://time.com/4865791/john-mccain-daughter-meghan-mccain-cancer/) might have affected his [decision to vote against](http://time.com/4878038/john-mccain-vote-video/) GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Again, I’m not going to speak for John McCain. You know, he has a brain tumor right now, that vote occurred at 1:30 in the morning — some of that might have factored in,” Johnson said in an interview Tuesday on [AM560 Chicago’s Morning Answer,](http://morninganswerchicago.com/2017/08/08/wisconsin-senator-ron-johnson/) which was [published by CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/09/politics/kfile-ron-johnson-john-mccain/index.html) on Wednesday. Pressed on whether he thought McCain’s brain tumor affected his judgment, Johnson continued: “Again, I don’t know exactly what — we really thought — and again I don’t want speak for any Senator. I really thought John was going to vote yes to send that to conference at 10:30 at night. By about 1, 1:30, he voted no. So you have talk to John in terms of what was on his mind.” McCain’s office announced last month that he had been [diagnosed](http://time.com/4865791/john-mccain-daughter-meghan-mccain-cancer/) with an aggressive form of brain cancer after doctors discovered a [glioblastoma tumor](http://time.com/4865922/glioblastoma-john-mccain-brain-tumor/). He returned to Washington, D.C. to cast one of three [deciding Republican votes](http://time.com/4877901/john-mccain-skinny-repeal-vote/) against the GOP health care bill, arguing it “fell short” and would not improve Americans’ health care. He has since [returned to Arizona](http://time.com/4878862/john-mccain-chemotherapy-arizona/) to begin radiation and chemotherapy treatment. “It is bizarre and deeply unfortunate that Senator Johnson would question the judgment of a colleague and friend,” a spokesperson for McCain said in a statement. “Senator McCain has been very open and clear about the reasons for his vote.” Senator Suggests McCain Brain Tumor Explains Obamacare Vote ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4893541/mccain-obamacare-tumor-ron-johnson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4893541/mccain-obamacare-tumor-ron-johnson/"},"headline":"Senator Suggests McCain Voted Against Obamacare Repeal Because of His Brain Tumor","datePublished":"2017-08-09T16:30:14.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T04:54:39.000Z","description":"\"You know, he has a brain tumor right now, that vote occurred at 1:30 in the morning — some of that might have factored in\"","url":"https://time.com/4893541/mccain-obamacare-tumor-ron-johnson/","keywords":["Senate","Health Care","Congress","John McCain","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt040789fa378402bf/6988d9068fd2eefa7f358592/ron-johnson-john-mccain-cancer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt040789fa378402bf/6988d9068fd2eefa7f358592/ron-johnson-john-mccain-cancer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing On Ending Modern Slavery","caption":"Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing On Ending Modern Slavery","creditText":"Paul Morigi—WireImage/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":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4893541/mccain-obamacare-tumor-ron-johnson/","name":"Senator Suggests McCain Voted Against Obamacare Repeal Because of His Brain Tumor"}}]}] ```