the cnn special report "john mccain: moments that made the man" starts now. >> announcer: 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 so 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. >> 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, just, no. stop. you can't. you -- like, you have to rest. and he's like, well, i feel fine. i'm going back. i'm 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 klobuchar remembers his wife's raw emotion. out of sight of the 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 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 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 to old way of legislating in the senate? >> a marathon debate is underway, as u.s. senators try to overhaul obamacare. >> senators are now focusing on what's being called a skinny repeal. >> mr. sullivan?

>> three nights later, when the senate was taking the pivotal obamacare repeal vote, all eyes were on john mccain. >> i think he was conflicted, because, you know, he really does want to repeal and replace obamacare. and there was a lot of pressure on him to do this and do that. and 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, you know, 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 just sort of had a twinkle in his eye and he said, still weighing some things, but, i think we ought to find a way to work together. and then walks away. and we all sort of look at each other, did that mean what you thought it meant, you know? >> he came up to me in the well of the senate, where all the press gallery is hanging over, looking, and whispers to me, i'm voting "no." and i said, well, that's great. and then he says, do you think they can read my lips? and i said, no, i don't think so, no. >> it sounds like the way he delivered it, it was almost like kind of 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 hasn'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 five and a half years of beatings and interrogations in vietnam. >> one of my colleagues kept a running commentary and he kept saying, i don't know, which is tougher, interrogator or tired 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, you know, 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 difference. >> when we come back, mccain's first brush with death.

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my grandfather was a naval aviator. my father, a submariner. they were my first heros and earning their respect has been the most lasting ambition of my life. >> to really understand senator mccain, you've got to understand where he comes from, family wise. his dad was a four-star admiral. his grandfather was a four-star admiral. >> a storied 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. at the same time, he's very intellectual and a scholar. >> he's a rebel with a cause. >> he's a rebel with multiple causes. >> in his early years, mccain was actually a rebel without a cause. he graduated fifth from 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,"

the heroic figures in the spanish civil war. and he knows that frontwards and backwards. >> he's inspired by those larger than life figures. >> and as a flight school cadet, mccain romanticized his experience, acting as if he were one of his favorite literary characters. >> i wanted to fly airplanes by myself, off of aircraft carriers. you know, i thought that was the 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 canopy off the airplane, but i didn't read that book. 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 kicked the canopy open. >> i don't think it changed him at all. john went back to the room, went to bed for about two hours, got up, we went over to the club for happy hour and he regaled everybody with stories of his crash. >> i don't think until actually the "forrestal", which was a really miraculous that he survived, that he began to take his military career seriously. >> it was july 29th, 1967. his first combat mission aboard the "uss forrestal," 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 inferno, but others didn't.

the fire spread across the ship's deck, killing 134 men, injuring hundreds of others, and destroying 20 planes. >> that 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 lying there, terribly burned and 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? and i said, no, he made it, he's fine, and 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 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. ron! soh really? going on at schwab. thank you clients? well jd power did just rank them highest in investor satisfaction with full service brokerage firms...again. and online equity trades are only $4.95... i mean you can't have low cost and be full service. it's impossible. it's like having your cake and eating it too. ask your broker if they offer award-winning full service and low costs. how am i going to explain this? if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab. schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. this is the kid i went to the he was a cutie!h. and if you go down, that's me, above him. you won best looking in your senior year of high school? somebody had to win it.

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vietnam 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, with his navy skyhawk 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 when i hit the water, i woke up. >> and angry villagers swinging bayonets were surrounding mccain. >> i was kind of dazed, you know, 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 treated well here. >> he was beaten on a regular basis. you know, 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 the players were and he would give their false names of. 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. john mccain was tempted, but refused. >> did you know, as secretary of the navy, that he declined? >> oh, yes, oh, yes. >> and 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 p.o.w.'s 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 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, you know, air pirate, et cetera, and admitted to their claims against him. >> how much did that moment, the vietnamese breaking him, affect him from there on out? >> look, i think he wanted to die. i think he felt that 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. 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 p.o.w.s 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 five and a half years of torture, isolation, and illness, mccain was one of 100 p.o.w.s released by the north vietnamese. >> of course, we were very happy. of course, we were overjoyed and, 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 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, his hands, can't comb his hair. the things that we take for granted. >> when i think about that health care 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, you know, 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 gift 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 p.o.w. goes to washington when we come back. the closer you get to home,

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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 north vietnamese prison camp in the spring of 1973 was big news. >> he was also the most seriously marked by his five and a half 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 and find out what the hell has 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 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 of 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 kegs to become a candidate for the republican nomination for u.s. congress from 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 -- >> mccain adored 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're there to keep the peace. i ask, what peace? >> on october 23rd, 1983, 241 american servicemen in beirut were killed in their barracks by a pair of car bombs. >> everything in me told me that 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. >> arizonians 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. mccain 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. >> can i just translate? >> yeah. >> he blew up. he had a temper. >> he blew up. >> he can get really wrought up and get upset with people and say things he later regrets. >> i take it as something that shakes things up in the senate. >> it was on vivid display in 1989, when mccain's close friend and mentor from his days as a navy liaison, senator john tower, was nominated to be secretary of defense. early on, allegations merged that tower was an excessive drinker and womanizer. >> he was like a father to me, in many respects. i knew john tower and i knew 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. wary of personal attacks and of christian conservatives, whom mccain blamed for attacking tower. >> he's called them the agents of intolerance. >> and is he wrong? this was about things bigger than that. this was about control of the power and putting then president bush in his place. and he was maddened 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 loan association. he was also a contributor to john mccain's campaign and a partner of cindy mccain on an arizona real estate deal. >> we will now proceed to hear from senator mccain. >> when regulators were investigating keating and his s&l's collapse, mccain along with four other senators met

with them. >> i'm glad to have the opportunity to fully and publicly account for my relationship with charles keating. >> many felt the senators were trying to influence the investigation to help keating. >> when 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 -- >> personally. >> -- being in prison for five and a half 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 in 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. >> focusing 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 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 america's destiny. >> and planting seeds for a run for the highest office in the land. that when we come back.

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>> 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 running against the evil empire. >> over a couple of bottles of wine, we kind of concocted the straight talk express, saying that he could handle setting 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, 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 and 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 bangladesh. >> there's really not much you can do except to condemn it. >> our daughter, bridget -- >> 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 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 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. and to himself, more than to 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 secede the republican president who beat him in 2000. >> he started out as the heir

apparent and then 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 bristled 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? >> yep. >> 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 mac 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 them what a comeback looks like.

>> and thought he'd be facing his old friend, hillary clinton. >> i think we bought 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 sarah palin of the great state of alaska! >> sarah palin was a surprising and bold decision. she drew the conservative support he was sorely lacking. >> it's no who he wanted to choose. >> he told me you want to put my name on the list to be vetted for vice president. i said, are you serious? he said, i am. i said, you don't have to do that. i don't know how you can do it, as a matter of fact,. >> you're not a republican. >> i'm not a republican. no, i'm very serious about it. so 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 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 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, ma'am. >> no? >> no, ma'am. 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 or maligned, he's going to be right there defending you. >> no, ma'am. no, ma'am. >> still, it was a contentious race. >> the dow jones industrials nosediving. >> 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 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 -- [ audience reacts ] please! >> true to form, mccain marked the history's moment 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 quartz. 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 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. if you have psoriasis, ...

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thanks, janet. it's welcomemy happy place. store. you can learn how to switch to xfinity mobile, a new wireless network that saves you cash. and you can get 5 lines of talk and text included with your internet. and over here i'm having my birthday party. dj fluffernutter, hit it! ♪ dj fluffernutter simple. easy. awesome. ask how to get $300 back when you sign up for xfinity mobile, and purchase a new samsung phone. visit your local xfinity store today. my time might be passing, but i'll be grateful for what it means so i can watch america come ever closer to the ideals she was always intended to be

and is that i might yet become the man i always wants to be. ♪ >> it was the morning after john mccain lost his 2008 run for president. >> i was sitting there walloing in the loss and he told me to put on my boot strapz and get going. he's like get your coffee we got 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, noent enzl tourage or security. and true to form mccain sparred with the new president. >> this president in this administration has been either guilty of colossal incompentance or engaged with a cover up. >> but he also worked with obama

becoming 9 go-to guy on immigration and confirming nominees and residenting to egypt. >> in 008 did you ever think you'd be obama's republican deal maker. >> no i because i thought idaho be out. no but look i worked on a lot of issues 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 mccains. the one who campaigns like a conservative and the one who legislatives like a liberal. in 2010, conservative j.d. hayworth gave his his toughest challenge ever. vulnerable in the g.o.p. primary mccain attacked right and he stopped talking compromise on immigration putting principles aside and playing to the

republican base he needed to win his primary. >> complete the dang fence. it will work this time. it's a trade off. >> even john mccain is not immune to saying what you need to say to get elected. >> we all do it. i am glad we made the choice he made. he's a handful of beacon of lights who's standing against threats to our basic democracy. mccain won his senate seat back for a fifth term and returned as the elder statesman. >> we are here to vote and not block things. >> he really values bipartisanship and has invested the time in getting to lots of senators and in building relationships. >> mccain's bipartisan bonding and mentoring senators was done mostly on the road while traveling abroad. >> well, our most experience

with vodka shots was in estonia. i have seen reported it was your idea? >> oh, i would not take credit for it. i think it was mutually agreed pond venture. we used up upon adventure. >> mccain's globe trotting is serious business. >> he can have days he doesn'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 is great. if the door did not open, he just started banging on it until it fell. if we wanted to see somebody, the ambassador or the general did not 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. >> 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 at p.o.w. dozens of time. >> it was inspiring to see him in a place where he made such a sacrifice for our country, in a conflict that was so violent and challenging and yet today he's 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 does not see it is limited in one place or what is convenient or what works at home. he's doing this for our country. >> one of his last international trips was in the summer of 2017, just a month later at a routine check up, doctors diagnosed mccain with brain cancer. average survival time of 14 months.

>> those are averages. you are not average. >> i said let me put it another way, everybody knows you are abnormal so we are counting on your abnormalcy. >> i'm sure he appreciated that. >> he did, he did. >> he has called me three times this morning. no more, whoa is me, lindsey, he is yelling at me to buck up, so i am going to buck up. >> mccain paraphrased his hero, teddy roosevelt approach, to mortality. >> there are two ways of looking at these things. one of them is to celebrate. i am able to celebrate a wonderful life and i will be grateful for the additional time that i have. >> additional time to fight harder than ever. >> what a privilege to serve this big and broiling and temperant, striving, beautiful, bountiful, magnificent country

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

♪ ♪ >> i'm . >> we're going to go to washington and shake things up. >> i can't trust obama. he's an arab. >> the first african-american to run the united states. >> failure to act