"John McCain, if you look at his last campaign, it was all about repeal and replace, repeal and replace," Trump told the crowd. "So he decided to do something different, and that's fine."

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"We're going to do it eventually," Trump insisted of ObamaCare repeal efforts, adding Strange would help the GOP reach the goal.

The Arizona Republican announced Friday he would also vote against the latest repeal measure from Graham and Cassidy, which Republicans hoped to vote on next week ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline for approving the bill on a majority vote.

“I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal. I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried," McCain said in a statement.

Trump said Friday night that he was provided a list of 10 GOP senators who were "absolute no's" on ObamaCare repeal, saying McCain was not on the list.

"John McCain was not on the list. So that was a totally unexpected thing, terrible. Honestly, terrible," Trump said.

The president acknowledged that McCain's opposition hurt GOP repeal efforts, but insisted the party would "go back" and press for repeal.

"It's like a boxer – they get knocked down, get up. Knocked down, get up," Trump said.

"And then the bad ones, they stay in the stool and they say, 'We quit, we quit.' The great ones get up and they end up winning. That's what we're going to do. We might have to go back again and again."

Updated: 9:43 p.m.