FACT CHECK

Fact Check: Is Ducey responsible for McCain's 'no' vote on 'Obamacare' repeal?

Philip Athey
The Republic | azcentral.com
Ken Bennett, Republican candidate for governor.

THE MEDIA: Web.

WHO SAID IT: Ken Bennett.

THE RACE: 2018 gubernatorial primary.

PARTY: Republican.

THE TARGET: Gov. Doug Ducey.

THE COMMENT: "John McCain’s ‘thumbs down’ is the reason we still have Obamacare and his wife will vote the same way. And Governor Ducey told him to do it."

THE FORUM: Statement published May 31, at https://www.kenbennett.com/blog/i-will-not-appoint-cindy-mccain.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT: Did Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tell U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to vote against a repeal of the Affordable Care Act on July 28, 2017?

ANALYSIS: Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Bennett is blaming Gov. Doug Ducey for Sen. John McCain's "no" vote on the "skinny" repeal of the Affordable Care Act that stalled the GOP's attempt to scrap the controversial health-care law. 

Bennett's claim is based off a statement McCain made prior to his famous early-morning vote against the skinny repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare."

RELATED:Sen. John McCain torpedoes Republican health-care effort

"I'm not supportive of the legislation as it stands today," McCain said at a news conference. "My position on this proposal will be largely guided by Gov. Ducey's analysis of how it would impact the people of our state."

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Christine Bauserman, a spokeswoman for the Bennett campaign, also pointed to four Twitter posts Ducey sent an hour after the McCain news conference.

"It's no secret Obamacare has been a disaster for Arizona and that I want it repealed and replaced," Ducey wrote in the Twitter post. "However, I agree with (Sen. McCain) that the bill on the table clearly isn’t the right approach for Arizona."

Kirk Adams, Ducey's chief of staff, said those posts were not in reference to the skinny repeal, but a more comprehensive Obamacare repeal that was not yet done.

The tweet referenced "a specific piece of legislation that was being worked on and continued being worked on but as they got up to the deadline for the August recess the bill wasn't done," Adams said. 

"So what the Senate decided to do was to pass what they called the skinny amendment, which was really just a procedural move to keep the bill alive."

The move would have sent the Senate bill to the House with the understanding that both chambers would then form a conference committee to hammer out the final version. 

But the House also could simply have accepted the skinny repeal bill as it was, and sent it to President Donald Trump to sign into law. McCain was worried that the House would do that.

"We have to have an assurance that it will go to a normal conference," McCain said at the news conference. "Right now, that is not the case, and we do not have the assurance that is the case."

RELATED:Lawsuit filed to knock Ken Bennett off Republican ballot for governor

The Arizona lawmaker also said the Senate should focus on reaching across the aisle and find a bipartisan solution to repealing and replacing Obamacare. 

"I believe one of the major problems with Obamacare is that it was rammed through Congress by Democrats, without a single Republican vote," McCain said at his news conference. 

"Look, we can't make the same mistake that we inflicted in 2009, we got to have some bipartisanship."

But McCain still wanted to talk to Ducey before making his final decision.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey

In the hours before the vote, McCain joined U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., on a conference call with the governor to hear his opinion.

"There was one phone ... it was the governor, it was John McCain and Jeff Flake," Adams said, adding that he did not know what the two senators said but he did know that Ducey "asked (McCain) to support the skinny bill."

In his latest book "The Restless Wave," McCain described the phone call. 

"Governor Ducey, who had previously expressed serious reservations about the bill, called to say on balance he thought it was worth voting for."

Ultimately, Flake voted for the bill while McCain famously turned his thumb down, in the early hours of July 28. 

After the vote, McCain released a statement. 

"From the beginning, I have believed that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with a solution that increases competition, lowers costs, and improves care for the American people," McCain said. 

"While the amendment would have repealed some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations, it offered no replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens."

Aside from McCain's book and his statement explaining his reasoning, that McCain broke from Ducey's wishes on the vote was reported in articles in The Arizona Republic, the Washington Post, the New York Times and other news outlets in the days after the "no" vote.

In an interview with KTAR radio 10 days after the vote, Ducey said, "You can ask John McCain who tells him how to vote," explaining that he gave his advice to the senator but understood that McCain would ultimately vote his own conscience. 

RELATED:Sen. John McCain blasts Trump for 'one of the most disgraceful performances' he's seen

Bauserman said that these explanations after the vote show Ducey trying to take both sides of the issue.

"He said to vote for it, then he said not to vote for it. ... Ducey says he's for and against everything," Bauserman said, maintaining that McCain's vote was based on Ducey's recommendation.

But Julie Tarallo, communications director for McCain, disagreed.

"That’s not true. Senator McCain was very clear about the reasons for his vote," she said in an email. 

Adams was just as adamant that McCain's decision to vote "no" was his alone. 

There is "unequivocally absolutely no truth to this notion that Doug Ducey told John McCain to vote 'no' on the skinny bill," Adams said.

BOTTOM LINE: Bennett is seeking to paint Ducey as partially responsible for the non-repeal of Obamacare as he campaigns against the governor in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

The events that led to the "no" vote, including the conference call with Ducey, McCain and Flake, where Ducey asked the senators to support the bill, were widely reported immediately after McCain gave his famous thumbs-down. 

While Ducey did speak out against one version of the Obamacare repeal, there is no evidence that Ducey told McCain to vote against the skinny repeal.

THE FINDING: No stars: False.

SOURCES: "What Ducey told McCain ahead of his big vote to kill GOP 'repeal' bill," published by The Arizona Republic, July 28, 2017; "The week John McCain shook the Senate" published by the Washington Post, July 28, 2017; "Behind Legislative Collapse: An Angry Vow Fizzles for Lack of a Viable Plan," published by the New York Times, July 28, 2017; Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey: ‘We’re back to square one’ with health care, published by KTAR on Aug. 8, 2017; email with Julie Tarallo June 27; phone interview with Christine Bauserman June 27; phone interview with Kirk Adams, July 2; "The Restless Wave," by John McCain, published May 22. 

READ MORE: