nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself. something that encompasses you but is not defined but your existence alone. we cannot always choose the moments. often they arrive unbidden.

it is decision day for the republican-led senate. stakes shall so high. today an emotional return to capitol hill. senator john mccain coming back for a crucial healthcare 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 wushs for senator john mccain. >> it's april aggressive brain cancer. average survival rate is about 14 months. >> about two weeks earlier john mccain was diagnosed with brain cancer. >> it's crushing. it's crushing. >> confidant and former press secretary brooke buchanan. >> i was so shocked when he told me he was flying back to d.c. i was like, no. stop. you can't. like, you have to rest.

and he's 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. this never crossed my mind that there would be 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 amy clob bu char remembers his wife's raw emotion, out of sight of the cameras but audible inside the chamber. >> she's sitting up there knowing 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 dysfunction. >> 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 fwobill to repla obamacare was not bipartisan nor did it go through the senate process or regular order as mccain demanded in his speech.

>> why don't we try the old way of legislating in the senate? >> a debate is underway as u.s. senators try to overhaul obamacare. >> they're trying to focus on a skinny repeal. >> three nights later when the senate was taking the pivotal obamacare appeal vote, all eyes were on john mccain. >> i think he was conflicted because he really does want to repeal and replace obamacare, and there was a lot of pressure on him to do this and do that. i said do what you want to do. >> as someone who had just learned of his own health challenges, to have a healthcare 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 wooed in plain sight by republican leadership. but he was quietly sending signals to friends on the other side of the aisle, like democratic senator chris coons. >> he sort of had a twinkle in his eye and said, still weighing some things, but i think we ought to find a way to work together and walks away. and we look at each other, did that mean what you thought it meant? >> he came up to me in the we will of t-- well of the senate e all the press gallery is looking and whispers to me, i'm voting

no. i said oh, that's great. and 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 kind of in his typical devilish fashion. >> he has this joy about him when he's doing his work. >> especially when he's being a mav rit. >> 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 vice president 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 a and interrogations in vietnam. >> one of my friends kept a running tally, which is tougher, d.c. interrogator or old 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 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 and 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 difference. >> when we come back, mccain's first brush with death.

you won't see these folks at the post office. they have businesses to run. they have passions to pursue. how to they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters. ship packages. all the amazing services of the post office, right on your computer. get a 4 week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/now and never go to the post office again.

my grandfather was an of aal of aiantor, my father a submariner. they were my first heroes and earning their respect has been a lasting a.m. biftion my life. >> to understand senator mccain, you have to understand where he comes from familiwise had the his dad was a four-star admiral, his grandfather was a four-star admiral. >> a story legacy, the real life heros john mccain grew up with. >> and 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. >> also had a little bit of james dean in him. >> friend and political consultant john weaver. >> he's a rogue figure at times. tep same time he's very

intellectual and a scholar lor. >> he's a rebel with a cause. >> he's a referral with several causes. >> in his early years he was actually a rebel without a cause. he graduated fife frth the bottom of his class at the naval academy. mccain's passion was for literature, not his family legacy. >> i had friends of mine who went to ivy league schools as well as the university of virginia. and i'm sure that part of my excuse for being rebellious was that i wanted to go to one of those schools. i always had a great interest in literature and history. >> the novels of the '30s and '40s. >> hemingway, he loves a farewell to arms and the spanish and civil war and he knows that front wards and backwards. >> he's inspired by those larger than life figures. >> and as a flight school cadet,

he roman -- row manta sized his experience. >> i wanted to fly airplanes myself off of aircraft carriers. i thought that was height of glamour and excitement and, again, it was a bit self-absorbed. >> beautiful women, fast cars, and late nights were distractions. and one incident in 1958 almost cost him his life. >> crashed in corpus christi bay, he sunk to the bottom. he was sitting on the bottom of the aircraft and he said, you know, i remember there's some kind of a switch here somewhere that blows the can nopy off the airplane but i didn't read that back and i don't know where the switch is so i guess i'm dead. >> old friend chuck larson witnessed the crash and says mccain finally kiktd can nopepy open. >> i don't think it changed him at all. he went back to the room for two

hours, got up and we went over to happy hour and he regaled everybody with stories of his crash. i don't think until actually the force stahl, which was miraculous that he survived, that he began to take his military career seriously. >> it was july fwhooint, 1967, his first combat mission aboard the u.s.s. forceal. a plane on the deck fired a missile which struck the fuel tank of the plane mccain was in. mccain escaped the deadly inferno, but others didn't. the fire spread across the ship's deck killing 134 men, injuring hundreds of others, and destroying 20 planes. >> it was terrible. i'll never forget some hours after the fire was at least

under some control i went up to the sick bay because i had gotten some shrapnel in my legs and there were these individuals laying there terribly burned. one of the individuals said, mr. mccain, i went over and he told me his name and he mentioned another pilot. 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 were really remarkable. >> to this day he talks about those moments. it changed him. he had made his mind up that that's when he was going to make a career out of being in the military. that was going to be his calling in life. >> a calling that was about to take him to the darkest, most

torturous future. that, when we come back.

i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50? how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that.

like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. vietnam changed me in significant ways for the better. >> october, 1967, 30 win-year-old john mccain took off for the 23rd time on a routine bombing mission over vietnam. but then his navy sky hawk was struck in the right wing.

>> so i was gyrating very violently, almost straight down, so i had to eject very quickly. i was knocked unconscious when i ejected and then when i hit the water i woke up. >> and angry villagers swinging bayonets were surrounding mccain. >> i was kind of dazed, so i wasn't sure what was going to happen. >> he was the son of a four-star admiral and the vietnamese knew it. they forced him to give this interview in return for life-saving surgery on his badly injured body. >> i'm being treated well here. >> he was beat he 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 frontline of the new york giants or some other team who he knew the players were and he would give their false names out. they would eventually find out and beat him for that. >> then, a chance at freedom. it was may, 1968. his father, jack mccain was named commander of u.s. forces in the pacific which included vietnam. the vietnamese offered his son freedom. he was tempted but refused. >> did you know as secretary of the navy that he declined? >> oh, yes. >> what'd 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 says he was even beaten by ten guards at a time. >> his fellow prisoners literally had to feed him, right? >> they did. they had to beige hi-- bathe hi cleanse him, help himmer is vive with someone who is 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, you know, air pilot, et cetera, and admitted to their claims against him. >> how much did that moment, the vietnamese breaking him, affect 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 family down, his compatriots down. >> everybody, but mostly me. mostly me. >> how's that? >> because 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, but you always come back. >> but it was really about coming home. and in march of 1973, after more than five 1/2 years of torture, isolation, and illness, mccain was one of 100 pows released by the north vietnamese. >> of course, we were very pa

happy. 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 off the gangway, difficulty having 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, the way he can't raise his arms, his hands, can't comb his hair. the things that we take for granted. >> when i think about that healthcare vote when he went in there and went like that, well 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 maybe john has always felt that every day

he has outside the hanoi hilton has been a built and he's going to make the most of it. >> motivation that propelled mccain into the next stage of life and defined who he was 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. hey there people eligible for medicare.

gimme one minute... and i'll tell you some important things to know about medicare. first, it doesn't pay for everything. say this pizza is your part b medical expenses. this much - about 80% - medicare will pay for. what's left is on you. that's where an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company comes in. this type of plan helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. these are the only plans to carry the aarp endorsement for meeting their high standards of quality and service. so call unitedhealthcare insurance company today and ask for your free decision guide. with this type of plan, you'll have the freedom to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients.

and when you travel, your plan will go with you - anywhere in the country. whew! call unitedhealthcare today and ask for your free decision guide.

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 north vietnamese 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, a bruised and battered 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, find out what the hell's been going on. i said, well let's figure out something. >> that something took mccain out of the pilot's seat and off to the nation's capital as a navy liaison to the u.s. senate, an aide of sorts. a big part of his job, arranging international trips for senators like william cohen. >> everyone knew about his background, what he had been through, and yet he emerged with just a great sense of humor. >> all that time around senators sparked his own political ambitions. >> he probably looked at us and

said well, if these guys can get elected i sure can do it too. >> i think i started thinking about it when i saw that well-informed senators and people who knew the issues could have a significant impact on the formulation of national security policy. i'm announcing today my decision to become a candidate for the republican nomination for u.s. congress arizona's first district. >> in 1982, mccain decided to run for a u.s. house seat from tempe, 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 would help define him, one he would repeat throughout his career. bucking his own party. >> you're right not just to fight and die for freedom, but to -- >> he came to adore president ronald reagan. but the former military man disagreed with reagan's plan to send troops into lebanon.

>> the fundamental question is what is the united states interest in lebanon? it is said we are there to keep the peace. i ask what peace? >> on october 23rd, 1983, 241 american service men in beirut were killed in their barracks by a bear of car bombs. >> everything in me told me it was doomed to failure and i regret to this day that i was right. >> yet standing up to ronald reagan and being right made mccain a powerful voice. >> arizonaians must choose between two very different candidates for u.s. senate. >> and in 1986 after just four years in the house, mccain launched a bid for an open senate seat. he won by a landslide. he brought his signature drive and persistence to the senate. at times, his passion set fire to a temper. >> so let's not put anything to rest. >> he just to this day fights like he's a plebe at the naval

academy. >> john was always very transparent about his emotions. >> i can just translate? >> yeah. >> he blew up. he had a temper. >> exactly. >> he can get really wrought up and be upset with people and he can sometimes say things he later regrets. >> i just take it as something that shakes things up a bit in the senate. >> as far as these allegations are concerned, because nothing that -- >> it was on vivid display in 1989 when mccain's close friend and mentor from his days of a navy liaison, senator john tower, was nominated to be secretary of defense. early on, allegations emerged that tower was an excessive drinker and womanizer. >> he was like a father to me in many respects. i knew john tower and i know he didn't do that. >> after five weeks of testimony, tower's nomination went down. the incident would significantly shake mccain's approach to politics, wear riff personal attacks and of christian

conservatives whom mccain blamed for attacking tower. >> he's called on the agents of intolerance. >> and is he wrong? or this was about things bigger than that. this was about control of the party and putting then president bush in his place. and he -- he was mad by that. >> later that year, mccain's own conduct got him in hot water. >> prosecutors hope mccain's testimony will show the jury that keating knew how serious his problems with federal regulators were. >> charles keating was the owner of the failed lincoln savings and lone association. he was also a contributor to john mccain's campaign and a partner of cindy mccain on a real estate deal. >> we will now proceed to hear from snore mccain. >> when regulators were investigating keating and his s&l's collapse, mccain along with four other senators met with him. >> i'm glad to have the opportunity to fully and publicly account for my

relationship with charles keeting. >> and he felt the senators were trying to influence the investigation to help keating. >> and he came to see me in march of 1987. >> it's something mccain denied. >> my mistake was to go to the meeting, but at the meeting i said that i wanted no special favors, i wanted no -- anything done that would be -- 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. >> the keating five scandal 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 besmirched. and from that came a desire to clean up money and politics. >> mccain dove into his senate

work throughout the 1990s. >> key challenge remains getting the deficit under control. >> 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. >> focussing on fixing government corruption. >> and i think john's feeling was always that the fight is always worth it to fight against the system that is dishonest and corrupt, 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 america's destiny. >> and planting seeds for a run for the highest office in the land. that, when we come back. my name is jeff sheldon, and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in,

but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free.

a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today!

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 sites 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 bottles of wine we kind of concocted the straight talk express thinking that he could handle sitting in

the back of the bus with reporters all day long and a way to get our mess able out. >> my message of reform -- >> he thrived in it. and he captivated the nation. >> especially new hampshire. >> john mccain, according to cnn exit polling, wins the new hampshire primary easily. >> john turns to me and we kind of look at each other and he goes you know the pianos are going to start dropping on us now. and he was right. >> this campaign for us will be won or lost in south carolina. >> mccain's opponents started to play dirty. >> turn on the radio, turn on the television. unfortunately now pick up the telephone and you'll hear a negative attack against john mccain. >> one attack claimed mccain fathered a black child out of wedlock. in reality, mccain's daughter bridget was adopted from bang ga learn zblesh there

-- bangladesh. >> there's nothing you can do. >> it 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 the attacks on his family. >> hillary clinton became a senator not long after mccain's 2000 presidential loss. >> he obviously at that time was coming off of 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, you know, poured forth our feelings. but we basically said, look there is not the way politics should be conducted. >> he had to show his resiliency all ov -- resilience all over again, to himself more than his colleagues. >> and he did.

digging in on issues from campaign finance reform to the patient's bill of rights with senators from both parties. >> please join me in welcoming john mccain. >> by 2008. >> today i announce my candidacy 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 heir parent and crashed and burned big time. >> gop voters did not like his support for a surge of u.s. troops in iraq. >> we need 100,000 additional troops. >> and they bris will at his bipartisan 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. 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 very well. i'm optimistic. >> to get there, he did swallow some principle and played politics. >> we will secure the borders first when i am president of the united states. >> mccain seized the gop nomination. >> sure showed 'em 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 running mate. >> governor sara pailen of the great state of alaska. >> she was a surprising and bold decision. she drew the conservative support he was sorely looking.

>> that's not who he wanted to choose. >> he told me he wanted to put my name on a list to be vetted for vice president. i said are you serious? he said i am. i said i don't know how you can do it as a matter of fact. >> you're not a republican. >> no, i'm very serious about it. i said okay. okay. >> his first choice, close friend and democrat turned independent senator joe lieberman. >> we contoured a long time even after people in the party were telling him that 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 pailen. >> the streemt 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. >> nom. nom. he's a decent family man, citizen, that i just happen to are have disagreements with on fundamental issues. >> you know, john believes so deeply in fundamental fairness. but if he thinks you're being unfairly treated or maligned, he's going to be right there defending you. >> still, it was a contentious race. >> the dow jones industrial's 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 occasion business political pundits that it's 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 of booker t. washington to dine at the white house was taken as an outrage in many quarters. america today say 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 pledge 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. what do harvard graduates know about cognitive performance? as you'd probably guess, a lot. that's why a new brain health supplement called forebrain from the harvard-educated experts at force factor is flying off the shelves at gnc. forebrain's key ingredients have been clinically shown to help enhance sharpness and clarity, improve memory, and promote learning ability. and now every man and woman in america can claim a complimentary bottle. just use your smartphone to text the keyword on the screen to 20-20-20. scientific research on cognigrape, a sicilian red wine extract in forebrain's memorysafe blend, suggests not only sharper recall, but also improved executive function

and faster information processing. your opportunity to get into harvard may be gone, but it's not too late to experience a brain boost formulated by some of their brightest minds. just text the keyword on the screen to 20-20-20 with your smartphone to claim your complimentary bottle of forebrain. do it now - before you forget. that's the keyword on the screen to 20-20-20.

do it now - before you forget. i'm a small business, but i have... big dreams... and big plans. so how do i make the efforts of 8 employees... feel like 50? how can i share new plans virtually? how can i download an e-file? virtual tours? zip-file? really big files? in seconds, not minutes... just like that. like everything... the answer is simple. i'll do what i've always done... dream more, dream faster, and above all... now, i'll dream gig. now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. comcast, building america's largest gig-speed network. my time might be passing, but i'll be grateful for what remains so that i can watch america come ever closer to the ideals 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 put on my boot straps and, you know, get going. he's like, go grab me a coffee, we've got calls to make. >> how much of that is john mccain will not stop moving? >> he can't look back. >> 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 and this administration has either been guilty of colossal incompetence or engaged in a cover-up. >> 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 that you'd be president obama's deal maker? >> no, because i thought i'd be -- no, but, look, i worked on a lot of issue with president clinton. and 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 mccain's. the one who kpancampaigns like conservative and the one who legislates like a liberal. >> in 2010, conservative j.d. hayworth gave mccain his toughest challenge ever. vulnerable in the g. 0. p. primary, mccain attacked 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. >>. work this time. >> that's a tradeoff. >> even john mccain is not immune to saying what you need to say to get elected? >> that's right. we all do it. i'm glad he made the choice that he made the. we're in a dark time in this country and he is one of only a handful of beacons of light who are standing against threats to our basic democracy. >> he won his senate seat back for a fifth term and returned adds 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 senior. >> his bonding and mentor senators was done mostly on the road, especially while traveling abroad. >> well, our most famous experience with vodka shots was in estonia.

and 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. but we used to say what happens in talon stays in talon. >> still, mccain's globetrotting is serious business. >> he has a rule you can't have lunch in 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 the 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, mccain took it upon himself to reassure world leaders. >> in many respects this

administration is in disarray and they've got a lot of work 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 pow dozens of times. >> it was wonderfully inspiring to see him in a place where he made such a sacrifice for our country in a conflicting that was so violent and so challenging, yet today he is so respected. >> he seems to know everyone all over the world. he is someone that 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. >> so those are averages, you know. you're not average. i said let me put it near wanot way, john, everybody knows you're abnormal. so we're counting on that. >> i'm sure he appreciated that. >> he has called me three times this morning. no more whoa as me, lindsey. he is yelling at me and to buck up. so 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'm 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 so serve this big boisterous, embrawling, temp rate, striving,

beautiful, bountiful, brave, magazine nir sent country. with all our mistakes, frailties of human nature as much on display as our virtues, we are blessed. >> can he be tough? yes, 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 say patriot. regardless of party, is he a patriot. and eye i am honored that he's my friend. >> he is loyal to his friends. he loves i had country. and if he has to stand up to his party for his country, so be it. he would die for this country. i love him to death. >> a leader who once you 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. ♪ >> so we're heavy here this morning, i'm christi paul. >> and i'm martin savage in for victor black well. he served in the u.s. senate for more than 30 years. six terms in that role, better known as the maverick. >> we're talking about u.s. senator, john mccain. he passed away yesterday afternoon. he wads at his home near sedona, arizona, and he was surrounded by his family in his final hour. cnn's dana bash has a look at his