at his ranch in sedona arizona. cnn takes a look back at his incredible life of service and sacrifice now in this dana bash documentary, john mccain, moments that made the man. the following is a cnn special report. nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you, but is not defined by your existence alone. we cannot always choose the moments. often they arrive unbidden. it is decision day for the republican led senate. the stakes are high. today an emotional return to

capitol hill. senator john mccain coming back for a crucial health care vote. july 25th, 2017. for a 40 year senate veteran returning to washington to vote is standard stuff, but this day was anything but standard. >> tonight washington and the country united in prayers and well wishes for senator john mccain. >> it's an aggressive brain cancer. if you look at numbers alone, the average survival is around 14 months. >> about two weeks earlier, john mccain was diagnosed with brain cancer. >> it's crushing. it's crushing. >> confidente and former press secretary, brook buchanan. >> i was so shocked when he told me he was flying back to d.c. i was like no, stop. you can't. you have to rest. he was like i feel fine. i'm going back, going back.

>> mccain's dramatic entrance was straight out of one of the romantic hero novels he loves to read, a standing ovation from colleagues who gathered to greet him. >> it seemed to take him by surprise. >> he appreciated it. didn't expect it. but it meant the world to him. >> lindsey graham is mccain's best friend in the senate. >> i've always viewed him as indestructible. it never crossed me life there would be a political life for lindsey graham without john mccain until now. >> mccain knew he had everyone's attention and he took full advantage. >> i stand here today looking a little worse for wear i'm sure. >> the entire senate floor is silent and everyone's listening and then you hear this crying and it was cindy mccain up in the gallery. >> friend and fellow senator remembers his wife's raw emotion. out of sight of cameras, but

audible inside the senate chamber. >> she's sitting up there knowing that he has this terminal diagnosis and then he stands there and seizes the moment again. >> we're getting nothing done, my friends. we're getting nothing done. >> friends say even before he got sick, mccain had grown more and more frustrated with senate disfunction. >> we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle. >> his grim diagnosis was like a license to let it out. >> the senate is capable of that. we know that. we've seen it before. >> his party's bill to replace obamacare was not bipartisan nor did it go through the senate committee process or regular order as mccain demanded in his speech. >> why don't we try the old way of legislating in the senate? >> a marathon debate is underway as u.s. senators try to overhaul obamacare.

>> senators are focusing on skinny repeal. >> three nights later when the senate was taking the pivotal obamacare vote, all eyes were on john mccain. >> i think he was conflicted because he really does want to repeal and replace obamacare. there was a lot of pressure on him to do this and to do that. i said do what you want to do. >> as someone who had just learned of his own health challenges, to have a health care repeal bill with very little replacement i think was really close to his heart at that moment. >> hillary clinton spoke to her former colleague and friend about how personal this decision was. >> he was getting the world's best care. there was nothing that would be beyond his reach if he needed it for his own treatment and i think he did really consider all of the people that he represents in arizona and people across the

country and worried that because it was rushed through and there was so little thought to it, what would happen to them. >> thoughts that weighed on mccain well into the early morning hours of friday, july 28th, as senators gathered for the vote, mccain was being lobbied and woed by republican leadership, but he was quietly sending signals to friends on the other side of the aisle. >> he had a twinkle in his eyes. he said i think we ought to find a way to work together and walks away. we looked at each other and said did that mean what we think it meant. >> he came up to me in the well of the senate where all the press gallery is hanging overlooking and whispers to me i'm voting no. i said that's great. then he says do you think they can read my lips? i said, no, i don't think so,

no. >> it sounds like the way he delivered it it was almost in his typical devilish fashion. >> he has this joy about him, about his work. >> especially when he's being a maverick. >> right, especially when he's being a maverick. >> but his party leaders hadn't given up. mccain took a phone call from the president. on the senate floor mike pence pleaded with mccain to vote yes, but this is john mccain after all, former prisoner of war who survived 5 1/2 years of beatings in vietnam. >> one of colleagues said i don't know, d.c. intergator or tired senators? probably not going to change his mind. >> at 1:29 a.m., thumbs down. mccain voted no and killed that crucial republican bill to repeal and replace obamacare.

>> senator mccain? >> it made mccain a hero to obamacare supporters, but a trader traitor to many in his party. >> this is clearly a disappointing moment. >> a place he found himself many times in decades of legislative fights. >> he's been called the maverick for a reason because he's not just a maverick out there by himself kind of pursuing his own interests. that's not the kind of maverick john mccain is. john mccain likes to get things done that will make a differe e difference. >> when we come back, mccain's first brush with death. failed, she was pregnant, in-laws were coming, a little bit of water, it really- it rocked our world. i had no idea the amount of damage that water could do. we called usaa. and they greeted me as they always do.

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my grandfather was an aviator. earning their respect is the most lasting ambition of my life. >> in understanding senator mccain you have to understand where he comes from family wise. his dad and grandfather were a four star admiral. >> a storied legacy, the real life heros john mccain grew up with. >> i think his father and his grandfather instilled in him a sense of duty, honor and country. >> he was born to service. at some point he almost seemed to fight it. >> he had a bit of james dean in him. >> friend and political consultant, john weaver. >> he's a rogue figure at times.

at the same time he's very intellectual and a scholar. >> he's a rebel with a cause. >> multiple causes. >> in his earlier years john mccain was a rebel without a cause. he graduated fifth from the bottom of his class at the naval acade academy. mccain's passion was for literature, not his family legacy. >> i had friends of mine who went to ivy league schools and the university of virginia and i'm sure part of my excuse for being rebellious was i wanted to go to one of those schools. i had a great interest in literature and history. >> the novels of the 30s and 40s. >> hemmingaway. he loves a farewell to arms. he knows that frontwards and backwards. >> he's inspired by those larger than life figures. >> as a flight school cadet

mccain acted as if he was one of his favorite literary characters. >> i've wanted to fly airplanes by myself. i thought that was the height of glamour and excitement. again, it was a bit self absorbed. >> beautiful women, fast cars and light nights were distractions and one incident in 1958 almost cost him his life. >> crashed through corpus kristy bay. he sunk to the bottom. he was sit og tting on the bott the aircraft and he said i know there's a switch here somewhere that blows the bottom off the airplane, but i don't know where that switch is so i guess i'm dead. >> mccain finally kicked the canopy open. >> i don't think it changed him at all.

john went back to the room and slept for two hours and we got up and he told everybody stories of his crash. >> i don't think it was until the stall that he began to take his military career seriously. >> it was july 29th, 1967, his first combat mission aboard the uss forestal, an aircraft carrier assigned to bombing missions over vietnam. a plane on the deck accidentally fired a missile which struck the fuel tank of the plane mccain was in. mccain escaped the deadly inf n inferno, but others didn't. the fire spread across the ship's deck. >> it was terrible. i'll never forget some hours

after the fire was at least under some control, i went up in the sick bay because i had gotten some shrapnel in my legs and there these individuals lying there terribly burned and one of the individuals said mr. mccain and he told me his name and he mentioned another pilot and he said he didn't make it, did he? i said no, he made it, he's fine. he said thank god and he died. and, you know, those -- those kinds of, you know, of sacrifice are really remarkable. >> to this day he talks about those moments. it changed him. he had made his mind up that he was gonna make a career out of being in the military. that was gonna be his calling in life. >> a calling that was about to take him to the darkest most

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it changed me in significant ways for the better. >> october 1967, 31-year-old john mccain took off for the 23rd time on a routine bombing mission over vietnam, but then his navy skyhawk was struck in the right wing.

>> so i was moving very violently almost straight down so i had to eject very quickly. i was knocked unconsciousness when i ejected and when i hit the water i woke up. >> angry villagers were surrounding mccain. >> i was kind of dazed so i wasn't sure wa what was gonna happen. >> he was the son of a four star admiral and they knew it. >> he was beaten on a regular basis being hung by his arms from a ceiling. >> mccain told his friend and former defense secretary william cohen that it was brutal and

relentless. >> he would try to pretend he was cooperating by giving the names of the front line of the new york giants or some other team who he knew who the players were and he would give false names out and they would find out and beat him for that. >> then a chance atrop chance atropat freedom. his father was named commander of forces in the pacific. his son was offered freedom. john mccain was tempted, but refused. >> did you know as secretary of the navy that he declined? >> oh, yes. >> what did you think when you heard that. >> i said to myself that is really a figure of strength. >> for mccain it was his duty. the pows code of conduct called for release in the order of capture. there were dozens ahead of mccain. >> there was a correlation

between my refusal to accept early release and my treatment. the treatment got very much worse. >> what followed was months of nonstop beatings, hanging from his wrists, solitary confinement. at one point mccain said he was even beaten by ten guards at a time. >> his fellow prisoners literally had to feed him, right? >> they did. they had to bathe him, cleanse him, help him to survive the things that you would have to do in a hospital for someone who's near death with a bucket of water and maybe a sponge. >> by august 1968 mccain couldn't take it anymore. >> he signed a statement that he was an american black air pirate and admitted to their claims against him. >> how much of that moment of

breaking him effected him from there on out? >> i think he wanted to die. i think he felt he had let the honor slip away from him. he felt shame that he had let the country down, he had let his father down, his country down. >> everybody, but mostly me. mostly me. the standards that i set for myself. >> he would be forever haunted by the shame he felt. yet in the short-term his fellow pows pulled him through. >> get up off the floor. go back at them. you lost a round. we'll win the fight. you always go back into the fight. you always come back. >> but it was really about coming home and in march of 1973, after more than 5 1/2 years of torture, isolation and illness, mccain was one of 100 pows released.

>> of course, we were very happy. of course, we were overjoyed, but we didn't want to betray a great deal of emotion. >> john warner was there when mccain saw his admiral father for the first time. >> i remember him coming down on the gangway. difficulty walking and walking up and just commander mccain, sir, reporting for duty. it was a very moving moment. ♪ >> the relentless beatings had taken a toll. >> you still see the impact of that today, the way he was tied, you know, the way he can't raise his arms, can't comb his hair, the things we take for granted. >> when i think about that health care vote when he went in there and went like that, part of why he moves like that is because he can't move his arms like other people can. >> he never complains about it,

but his life was altered. >> i think in some sense that john has felt every day he has outside of hanoi has been a gift and he's going to make the most of it. >> motivation to define who mccain is going to be. >> i'm announcing today my decision to become a candidate for the republican nomination for u.s. congress. >> the pow goes to washington when we come back. now t-mobile has unlimited for the rest of us. unlimited ways to be you. unlimited ways share with others. unlimited ways to live for the moment. all for as low as 30 bucks a line. unlimited for you. for them. for all. get unlimited for as low at 30 bucks per line for four lines at t-mobile.

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political leadership is not so great a stretch for the military officer with a career change in mind. those who manage it do so i suppose because they can't imagine a life without wanting a prominent place in the nation's affairs. >> john mccain's release from a prison camp in the spring of 1973 was big news. >> he was also the most seriously marked by his 5 1/2 years of imprisonment. >> behind the scenes mccain was uncertain about his future. >> he said i just want to spend a little time with my family and get off airplanes and i need to

read a lot of back newspapers and find out what the hell's been going on. i said, well, let's -- let's figure out something. >> that something took mccain out of the pilot seat and off to the nation's capitol as a navy leason to the u.s. senate, an aid of sorts, a big part of his job, arranging international trips for senators. >> everyone knew about his background, what he had been through, and he emerged with a great sense of humor. >> all that time around senators sparked his own splpolitical ambitions. >> he probably looked at us and said if these guys can get elected i can too. >> i think i started thinking about it when i saw that well informed senators and people that knew the issues could have a significant impact on the formulation of national security policy. >> i'm announcing today my decision to become the candidate

for the u.s. senate. >> in 1982 mccain decided to run for a u.s. house seat from arizona, by then his home with his new wife cindy. he won and right away landed himself on the political map for a move that help define him, one that he would repeat throughout his career, bucking his own party. >> you were right not just to fight for freedom. >> mccain adored president ronald reagan, but the former military man disagreed with reagan's plan to send troops into lebanon. >> what is the united states' interests in lebanon. >> on october 3rd, 1983, 241 american servicemen were killed in their barracks.

>> everything in me told me it was doomed to failure and i regret to this day i was right. >> yet standing up to ronald reagan made mccain a powerful voice. >> arizonans must choose between two different candidates. >> after four years in the house, mccain launched a bid for an open senate seat. he won by a landslide. mccain brought his persist answpersistance to the senate. >> he fights like he's at the naval academy. >> john was always very transparent about his owe emoti >> he blew up. >> yeah. >> i take it as something that shakes things up a bit in the senate.

>> as far as these allegations are concerned. >> it was on vivid display in 1989 when mccain's close friend and mentor from his days as a navy liason, senator john tour, was nominated to be secretary of defense. early on allegations emerged that tour w-- tower was an excessive drinker and womanizer. >> i knew him and i know he didn't do that. >> after five weeks of testimony, tower's nomination went down. the incident would significantly shape mccain's approach to politics, weary of personal attacks and christian conservatives who mccain blamed for attacking tower. >> he's called the agents of tolerance. >> was he wrong? this was about control of the party and putting president bush in his place. >> later that year, mccain's own

conduct got him in hot water. >> prosecutor's hope mccain's testimony will show the jury that he knew how serious his problems with federal regulators were. >> he was the owner of the failed savings association and he was a contributor to john mccain's campaign and a partner to cindy mccain on an arizona real estate deal. >> we will now proceed to hear from john mccain. >> when regulators were investigating, mccain, along with four other senators, met with him. >> i'm glad to have the opportunity to fully account for my relationship. >> many felt the senators were trying to influence the investigation. it's something that mccain denied. >> my mistake was to go to the meeting, but at the meeting i said i wanted no special favors or anything done that would

appear unethical or wrong. >> ultimately mccain was cleared of any wrongdoing, but the allegations stuck with him. >> i've never seen him more depressed and angry about having his honor challenged. i think that hurt him more than the north vietnamese did. >> that hurt him more than being in prison for 5 1/2 years and beaten? >> that's how i felt. >> in his own mind he allowed his honor to be besmerched. >> mccain dove into his senate work throughout the 1990s taking on tough issues. >> what matters to me is the price of a pack of cigarettes coupled with other programs that will reduce teen smoking. >> focusing on government corruption. >> i think john's feeling was

the fight is always worth it to fight against a system that is dishonest and corrupt and needs to be changed, even if you fail, the fight is worth carrying on. >> mccain spent the last decade of the 20th century fighting a lot of battles, winning some and losing others. >> i run because i believe deeply in the greatness of meshmes america's destiny. >> and planting seeds for a run for the highest office in the land. that when we come back. [music playing]

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it is because i owe america more than she has ever owed me that i am a candidate for president of the united states. >> it was september 1999 and john mccain set his sights on the white house. >> i run because i believe deeply in the greatness of america's destiny and in the goodness of our cause. >> he was the underdog to front-runner george w. bush. >> he was the luke skywalker

against the evil empire. >> over a couple of bottles of wine we concocted the straight talk express thinking he could handle sitting in the back of the bus with reporters all day long in a way to get our message out. >> my message of reform. >> he thrived in it and he captivated the nation. >> especially new hampshire. >> john mccain wins the new hampshire primary easily. >> john turns to me and we look at each other and he goes you know the pianos are gonna start dropping on us now and he was right. >> this campaign is going to be won or lost. >> turn on the radio and turn on the television and you'll hear a negative attack against john mccain. >> one attack claimed mccain fathered a black child out of

wedlock. mccain's daughter bridget was adopted from bangladesh. >> there's not much you can do. >> the gutter politics had a major impact on mccain. he lost the 2000 primary and vowed to avoid personal attacks in his future races. >> i knew how painful it had been for him with attacks on his family. >> hillary clinton became a senator not long after mccain's presidential loss. >> he obviously at that time was coming off a particularly vicious and brutal and personal campaign, especially for his family. you know a thing or two about that. >> i do. >> he was truly just soldiering on. it wasn't like we sat down and just poured forth our feelings, but we basically said, look, this is not the way politics should be conducted. >> he had to show his resilience

all over again to himself more than to his colleagues. >> there you go. >> and he did, digging in on issues from campaign finance reform to patient's bill of rights with senators from both parties. >> please welcome me in welcoming john mccain. >> by 2008. >> today i announce my presidency for president of the united states. >> mccain was ready to mount another presidential run to succeed the republican president who beat him in 2000. >> he started out as the parent and crashed and burned big time. >> gop leaders did not like his support for troops in iraq. >> we need 100,000 additional troops. >> and they bristled at his bankruptcy work on immigration reform. he almost ran out of money and let most of his staff go. >> it was you and john mccain. >> yeah. >> no big entourage, no private

plane. >> no. sometimes i even drove the van. >> the next president of the united states. >> mccain climbed his way back. >> the mack is back. >> are you the front-runner now? >> i think we're doing well. i'm optimistic. >> to get there he did swallow some principle and played politics. >> we will secure the boarder first when i am president of the united states. >> mccain seized the gop nomination. >> sure showed them what a comeback looks like. >> and thought he'd be facing his old friend hillary clinton. >> i think we both thought that. i thought it would have been a great campaign because we both respected each other, we'd worked with each other. >> instead, it was barack obama. his first big decision, his runni running mate. >> governor sarah palin of the

great state of alaska. >> sarah palin was a surprising and bold decision. she drew the support he was sore lil ly -- lacking. >> i'm very serious about it. i said okay. okay. >> his first choice, close friend and democrat turned independent senator joe lieberman. >> he clung to it a long time even after people in the party were telling him there would be a walkout of like a third of the republican delegates because of some of my liberal domestic positions. >> mccain later admitted regretting not picking lieberman, but always defended palin. >> the treatment that she received was still the worst that i've ever seen any

politician receive. >> he's loyal to a fault and that was his decision. >> it was also his decision to not let his campaign turn ugly like in 2000. it came to a head at a town hall a month before election day. >> i can't trust obama. he's an arab. no? >> no, ma'am. no, ma'am. he's a decent family man, citizen, that i just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. >> you know, john believes so deeply in fundamental fairness, but if he thinks you're being unfairly treated he's gonna be right there defending you. >> no, ma'am. no, ma'am. >> still, it was a contentious race. >> the dow jones is nose diving. >> when the economy collapsed in september 2008, obama pulled ahead and never looked back. >> i'm doing just fine. i have been written off, dana, on so many occasions by

political pundits that its hard for me to count. >> but in the end the voters counted him out. >> barack obama has been elected president of the united states. >> i had the honor of calling senator barack obama to congratulate him. please. >> true to form, mccain marked the moment's history for the country. >> a century ago president theodore roosevelt's invitation to booker t. washington was an outrage. america today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. there is no better evidence of this than the election of an african-american to the presidency of the united states. >> what a moment and john rose to the occasion and said he is my president now.

>> and i plebdge to him tonight >> did you study his concession speech when you had to give yours? >> i did think about it. i tried to speak in a way that would create the same sort of reaction, even from people who were incredibly upset about what happened, didn't know what happened, couldn't figure it out. >> americans never quit. we never surrender. >> never quit, never surrender, even as he faces the toughest times to come. that when we come back. (thomas) nice choices! you see, now verizon lets you mix and match your family unlimited plans like you mix and match your flavors. so you get what you want, without paying for things you don't. number 6. i know. where do i put it? in my belly. (vo) one family. different unlimited plans. starting at $40 per line on the network you deserve.

my time might be passing. but i'll be grateful for what remains so that i can watch america come ever closer to the ideal she was always intended to be and that i might yet become

the man i always wanted to be. >> it was the morning after john mccain lost his 2008 run for president. >> i was sitting there wallowing in the loss, and he told me to pull up my bootstraps and get going, get your coffee and we have calls to make. >> how much of that is, john mccain will not stop moving? >> he's like a shark, which keeps him who he is. >> mccain raced back to the senate. no entourage, no security, no time to waste. >> i don't have any comment today. >> and true to form, mccain sparred with the new president. >> this president, this administration, has either been guilty of colossal incompetence or engaged in a coverup. >> but he also worked with obama, becoming the president's

go-to guy on immigration, confirming nominees, and even heading to egypt at the president's request. in 2008, did you ever think you would be president obama's republican deal maker? >> no, because i thought i would be -- no, but i worked on a lot of issues with president clinton, as well as a republican president. so it's not as if i haven't done this before. >> and like before, it made mccain especially unpopular with the conservative base of his party. >> you could say there are two john mccains. the one who campaigns like a conservative and the one who legislates like a liberal. >> in 2010, conservative j.d. hayworth gave mccain his toughest senate challenge ever. vulnerable in the gop primary, mccain tacked right. he stopped talking compromise on immigration, putting principle aside and playing to the

republican base he needed to win his primary. >> and complete the dang fence. it will work this time. >> that's the tradeoff. >> john mccain is not immune to saying what you need to say. >> he's one of the handful of beacons of light who are standing against threats to our democracy. >> mccain won his senate seat back for a fifth term and returned as the elder statesman. >> we're here to vote. we're not here to block things. >> he really values bipartisanship. and he's invested the time in getting to know lots of senators, very junior and very senior, and building relationships. >> mccain's bipartisan bonding and mentoring senators was done mostly on the road, especially while traveling abroad. >> well, our most famous experience was in estonia.

i've heard or i've seen reported that it was your idea. >> oh, i would not take credit for it. i think it was a mutually agreed-upon venture. we used to say what happens in talon stays in talon. >> still, mccain globe-trotting is serious business. >> he has a rule, you can't have lunch and dinner in the same continent. i mean, john travels a lot to stay relevant and be able to come back and translate the world. >> traveling with john was great, because if a door didn't open, he just started banging on it until it fell. so if we wanted to see somebody and the ambassador or the general didn't want us to see that person, i can guarantee you, after john was done making the case, we would see them. >> after president trump was elected, pa contamccain took it himself to reassure world leaders.

>> in many respects this administration is in disarray and they've got a lot of work to do. >> traveling to 26 countries and four continents in the first half of 2017 alone. including asia, in particular vietnam. over the years mccain visited where he was held as a p.o.w. dozens of times. >> it was wonderfully inspiring to see him in a place where he made such a sacrifice for our country in a conflict that was so violent and so challenging, yet today he is so respected. >> he seems to know everyone all over the world. he is one who looks at america and its role in the world and doesn't see it limited to one place or what's convenient or what works at home. he is doing this for our country. >> one of his last international trips was in the summer of 2017, just a month later at a routine checkup, doctors diagnosed mccain with brain cancer.

average survival time, 14 months. >> i said, those are amplverage you're not average. i said, put another way, everyone knows you're abnormal. >> i'm sure he preernappreciate. >> he did, he did. >> he called me three times this morning. no more woe is my, lindsey. he said, i'm going to buck up. >> mccain paraphrased his hero teddy roosevelt's approach to mortality. >> there's two ways of looking at these things. and one of them is to celebrate. i am able to celebrate a wonderful life. and i will be grateful for additional time that i have. >> additional time to fight harder than ever. >> what a privilege it is to serve this big, boisterous, brawling, intemperate, strooiflg, daring, beautiful,

bountiful, brave, magnificent country. with all our flaws, all the mistakes, all the frailties of human nature as much on and an as our virtues, we are blessed. >> can he be curmudgeonly? can he be tough? he can be all of that. but he was first a warrior, raised in a family that has defended our country for generations. and he is a patriot, regardless of party, he is a patriot. and i am honored that he's also my friend. >> he is loyal to his friends. he loves his country. and if he has to stand up his party for his country, so be it. he would die for this country. i would love him to death. >> a leader who once struggled to live up to his storied family legacy yet earned his own unique place in american history. driven by three words -- duty,

honor, and country. ♪ >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. the breaking news this day, the death of u.s. senator john mccain. welcome to viewers here in the united states and around the ho headquarters in atlanta. he served as a u.s. senator for more than 30 years, six terms in that role, better known as the maverick. u.s. senator john mccain passed away saturday afternoon. he was at his home near sedona, arizona, surrounded by his family in his final hour. he just recently discontinued treatment for the aggressive form of brain cancer he was fighting. people knew this moment would come.