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John McCain Will Miss The GOP Tax Bill Vote After Being Hospitalized For Chemotherapy Side Effects

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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has functioned as a swing vote on multiple major GOP Senate bills this year. A few of those moments did not end well for Republicans, but McCain announced last week that he intended to vote for his party’s controversial and sweeping tax reform plan that can only pass by way of a very narrow margin. On Sunday, however, CBS News reported that McCain will miss next week’s vote after being hospitalized last week for side effects from chemotherapy treatment for his brain cancer.

As a result, McCain will travel back to Arizona, where he will spend the holidays recuperating alongside his family, and his team has not specified when he will return to Capitol Hill. Speaking to reporters in the below CBS clip, President Trump addressed the matter by acknowledging that McCain is “going through a tough time,” but “word is that John will come back if we need his vote.” Indeed, the GOP may not suffer a loss even without McCain’s presence, for both Tennessee’s Bob Corker and Florida’s Marco Rubio have announced their intent to vote for the tax bill in the wake of semi-last-minute revisions.

(Also, there’s no word on whether Trump knows something that everyone else doesn’t know about McCain’s health status, or if he’s simply expressing the hope that his rival would return on demand if needed.)

On Sunday, Meghan McCain (after recently sharing a heartfelt moment with Joe Biden, who lost his son to brain cancer, on The View) thanked her Twitter followers for their “kind words” about her father. She also named a few charities that people could visit if they want to help find a cure for the deadly disease.

(Via CBS News)