PHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on Sen. John McCain’s surgery and the impact on the health care bill in the Senate (all times local):
8:30 p.m.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will delay consideration of health care legislation in the Senate. His decision follows Sen. John McCain’s announced absence after surgery left Republicans short of votes on their marquee legislation.
McConnell’s announcement amounts to another setback for GOP efforts, promoted by President Donald Trump, to repeal and replace “Obamacare” after years of promises.
McConnell issued his statement not long after McCain’s office disclosed that he had undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye. Doctors are advising McCain stay in Arizona next week to recover.
McConnell’s health care legislation is already hanging by a thread in the Senate with no votes to spare. McCain’s absence means it will be impossible for the majority leader to round up the votes needed to move forward with the bill next week as planned.
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7:35 p.m.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’s deferring consideration of the GOP health care measure.
The Senate leader had planned action on the controversial bill next week. But Sen. John McCain announced Saturday he would be staying in Arizona following surgery for a blood clot. That put the measure in jeopardy in the closely divided Senate.
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6 p.m.
Surgeons in Phoenix say they removed a blood clot from above the left eye of Sen. John McCain.
Mayo Clinic Hospital doctors said Saturday that McCain underwent a “minimally invasive” procedure to remove the nearly 2-inch (5-centimeter) clot, and that the surgery went “very well.” They said the 80-year-old Republican is resting comfortably at his home in Arizona. Pathology reports are expected in the next several days.
McCain’s office said in a statement that on the advice of his doctors, the senator will be recovering in Arizona next week.
McCain is a three-time survivor of melanoma. Records of his medical exams released in 2008 when he was the GOP candidate for president showed that he has had precancerous skin lesions removed and had an early stage squamous cell carcinoma, an easily cured skin cancer, removed.
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