Massive blow for Donald Trump as Republicans vote against taking down Obamacare

It's been a very dramatic night in the US Senate with the latest vote on Obamacare.

An attempt to vote down the Barack Obama-era healthcare act - known as Obamacare - has failed in the United States Senate. The 'skinny repeal' would have scaled back some of the more controversial aspects of Obamacare, but - following intervention by John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski - it was defeated by 51 votes to 49. Senate Republicans had tried the hardest to convince their members to vote for the new measures, while Vice President Mike Pence spent more than 20 minutes in conversation with McCain, but when the former candidate for the presidency approached a group of Democrats and was warmly received the writing was on the wall for the 'skinny repeal'. Senator Murkowski had come under pressure from Trump on Wednesday when he tweeted that she "let the Republicans, and our country, down" but she still voted against taking down Obamacare. The plan on the Affordable Care Act, had it succeeded, would have eliminated the individual mandate requiring all Americans to have health insurance coverage, as well as a tax on medical devices. https://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/890816249373966336 https://twitter.com/JoshMalina/status/890811673262514176