senator mccain was irate and exited the end of practice he knew was both a value and both a means of tortured and torture. john's passion was just the pain of one who'd experienced it himself, the pain of someone who loves his country and felt deeply the shame of episodes like over a and work to address them. >> what will it mean as senator mccain is no longer here my fear and concern as we will not soon see another member of john's stature join us. after that john earned over decades of service and a willingness to a country over 40 and because over self . senator mccain earned his maverick title and it would serve all well to remember that even as his principal stands costing the support of many in his party and even homestay, he wanted release of many more here and millions abroad , delighted to see someone willing to risk reaching across the aisle and around the world those holding we will continue to fight for the values that define americans. what should we do, what should we do to honor the memory and legacy of senator mccain? first, like the dreaddisease that took him from us. with my dear friend, belove

john mccain today. i want to elevate john. john was better than me, and i know it. john was the best of my generation. john mccain was and is a great human being. i don't know what's going to be said in the next few days about john mccain, by whomever it's going to be said. i don't know what's going to be done. but anybody who in any way tarnishes the reputation of john mccain deserves a whipping, because most of the ones who were do the wrong thing about john mccain didn't have the guts to do the right thing when it was their turn. we need to remember that. so i would say to the president or anybody in the world, it's time to pause and say this was a great man. he gave everything for us. we owe him nothing less than the respect that he earned. and that's what i intend to give john. in return for what he gave me. john took me to kosovo 20 years ago when clinton said we're going to send some people over to verify the crime sites, the ethnic cleansing. i went to pristina with john, went to montenegro, went to the world security conference in munich a few years after that. got to sit with piewp putin then. saw john mccain talk t

in the senate he was a consequential leader on the most critical issues facing our country. john mccain was one of our congress's most respected voices for a strong national defense and for good government. his words was as much his bond in washington as it was to his brothers in the armed -- in vietnam. madam president, i'd like to share with my colleagues a story which i believe demonstrates the essential character of john mccain. in november of 2010 john was part of a congressional delegation on its way to a security conference in nova scotia. bad weather caused their flight to be diverted to bangor, maine, where i live. i shortly received a phone call to come to the airport, and i went and welcomed john and my colleagues on their unplanned visit. as it happened, the troop greeters of maine were at the airport the same time. this legendary group of citizens has greeted more than 1.5 million service members, either leaving to go overseas or returning home. since 2003, never missing a single flight, even in bad weather or the middle of the night and the presiding officer, i believe, who has also

john didn't want to be defined as a professional prisoner of war. i love the story about a party that was given for john and his fellow captives after they got home. one young man was telling the story of his confinement in some detail when he happened to look over and see john mccain. he suddenly felt conspicuous and said to john i shouldn't be going on about my time as a prisoner of war. i was there for six weeks. you were there for five and a half years. typical john mccain humor and wit, john replied oh, no, go right ahead. the first six weeks were the toughest. like abraham lincoln, john mccain knew that laughter helped to make the unbearable bearable, and like president lincoln, he was secure enough in his own reputation, in his own achievements to be modest. john endured the hell of the hanoi hilton more than many, and he served in the senate longer than many. he leaves his mark on this body and our nation. when the issue of torture and detention was front and center before the american people, when we were trying to decide what were the boundaries for this democracy, faced with th

of a crowd, no. john's humility was real. of one who knows he is a flawed human, as we all are, and was accountable for his shortcomings. john, remarkably, wrote, spoke about, and acted on the ways in which he fell short. in an excellent recent hbo biography, mccain subjected himself to accountability for chapters he would rather have left forgotten in history. in talking about the 2000 primaries, rather than blaming the opponents and their dirty tricks for his loss, john took responsibility, for standing up in south carolina against the practice of flying the confederate flag over the capital. and he addressed the association with the keating five scandal. he was cleared, but he viewed that as part of the larger and growing problem of campaign finance that has threatened the ethics of all who served here. and rather than moving past it, he owned it and acted on it and worked relentlessly with senator feingold until they passed the mccain-feingold campaign finance reform bill. john used his hardest personal experience to make

of that. here he was talking up a bunch of young kids and we were, at the time, and it made a difference. it was leadership. it made a difference. john: we have the photo of him and it just changed but the photo of him in the hospital bed in hanoi while he was a prisoner. i want to read some of what he wrote about that experience. if anyone has questions of whether or not john mccain was a tough individual, listen to this. he writes about noon i was put in a rolling structure and taken to a treatment room with a try to put a cast on my right arm. they had great difficulty putting the bones together because my arm was broken the places and there were two floating bones. i watched the guy try to be belated for an hour and a half trying to get the bones lined up and this was without benefit of novocain. it was an extremely painful expands and i passed out a number of times. he finally gave up and slapped a chest cast on me. this experience was very fatiguing and was the reason white later when tv films were taken and look to many people as if i had been dropped. i believe that is the photo that we are looking at there. this was a guy wh

open to new evidence, good ideas and with was capable of changing his mind, he was unshakable when he was convinced of the appropriateness of a course of action. john was impatient. he wanted to get on with solving the problems facing our country. he had no use for the political games that sadly, far too often are played in the senate a. one often overlooked aspect of john, what is was his love for the environment. i once visited him at his beloved ranch in daytona and i was surprised when he took me all over the property, pointing out birds, naming them and clearly taking such delight in the wildlife. until that moment, i did not know of his interest and love for nature. later on, i accompanied john on a trip the organized arctic to see the permafrost melting and to meet with native alaskans. we also traveled to antarctica where we spent four days meeting with scientists who told us of the impact of global warming. he took me on so many trips and broadened my horizons. four times we went to afghanistan, four times to erect. we went to yemen. we went to libya and colonel cannot be before he was overthrown and killed. john taught me so much on these

this body who thought the world of this man and learned so much from him. john mccain was a leader, there is no arguing about that. one of the qualities of leadership that is so important -- sometimes gets overlooked that was a huge quality of this great senator -- was his ability to focus on, give his time and willingness to mentor newer members of the senate. if you look at the arc of his three decades of service in the u.s. senate, one thing he always took the time to do was to take newer members under his wing, show them the ropes, travel with ,hem, teach them, coach them and of course this takes time and effort heard it takes energy. it takes initiative. we are all busy here in the united states senate heard. a reallywas and is important hallmark of the mccain legacy. critical. ,nd it is a bipartisan legacy mr. president. just look at the senators who have come to the floor to speak about senator mccain. look at some of the network senators who have come to the floor. ernst, whitehouse, graham of course. many who have had that privilege. the great privilege of having jo

was well read. he saw a lot of movies and so on. the interplay between john and lindsey was like two great comedians like martin and lewis. they played off of each other. a lot of my memories are fun memories of those trips and they're both very quick. john had such a great range of knowledge about the writings. he read a lot. he was a prolific reader. he had seen a lot of movies. he knew a lot of the pop culture. he knew a lot of the sports culture and the important things we were doing in the senate. it was always fun to be with him on these trips and that's one of the things i'll certainly remember. >> what do you think he was most proud of of the things you accomplished with him in the senate? >> i'm not sure. i know that he was proud of his achievements with respect to campaign finance reform and that sort of thing, but -- and he was proud of some of the things he achieved here in the state of arizona for native americans and our environment here and so on, but i hope he was proud of his most important legacy, which is his contribution to american nation

perpetuating and engaging in secret wars here now to explain is our senior dude with secrets john of a. was a was yeah that's the latest from the u.s. covert war front in africa well which country talking about somalia kenya where uganda chad morocco tunisia. nigeria senegal tanzania because we've got an active military presence and all of on. the others. i'm not really sure why you're getting about hands to us military adventurism on yet another continent leave the obvious that i'm on in just it's. his. military spokespeople have made it clear that the american special ops role in africa is limited to advising and assisting and who among us who can use some good advice in this crazy crazy were hurled. maybe if i got some i never would have invested all my money into the failed product launch of extras slutty olive oil. who are a big as the moon all apparently everybody prefers their olive oil. oil sleeping with other people is gross but the notion that the us military is just advising in africa is both but wow i do say that because for more than five years green berets navy seals and other

john mccain today. i want to elevate john. john was better than me, and i know it. john was the best of my generation. john mccain was and is a great human being. i don't know what's going to be said in the next few days about john mccain, by whomever it's going to be said. i don't know what's going to be done. but anybody who in any way tarnishes the reputation of john mccain deserves a whipping, because most of the ones who were do the wrong thing about john mccain didn't have the guts to do the right thing when it was their turn. we need to remember that. so i would say to the president or anybody in the world, it's time to pause and say this was a great man. he gave everything for us. we owe him nothing less than the respect that he earned. and that's what i intend to give john. in return for what he gave me. john took me to kosovo 20 years ago when clinton said we're going to send some people over to verify the crime sites, the ethnic cleansing. i went to pristina with john, went to montenegro, went to the world security conference in munich a few years after that. got to sit with piewp putin then. saw john mccain talk t

of that. here he was talking up a bunch of young kids and we were, at the time, and it made a difference. it was leadership. it made a difference. john: we have the photo of him and it just changed but the photo of him in the hospital bed in hanoi while he was a prisoner. i want to read some of what he wrote about that experience. if anyone has questions of whether or not john mccain was a tough individual, listen to this. he writes about noon i was put in a rolling structure and taken to a treatment room with a try to put a cast on my right arm. they had great difficulty putting the bones together because my arm was broken the places and there were two floating bones. i watched the guy try to be belated for an hour and a half trying to get the bones lined up and this was without benefit of novocain. it was an extremely painful expands and i passed out a number of times. he finally gave up and slapped a chest cast on me. this experience was very fatiguing and was the reason white later when tv films were taken and look to many people as if i had been dropped. i believe that is the photo that we are looking at there. this was a guy wh

of a crowd, no. john's humility was real. of one who knows he is a flawed human, as we all are, and was accountable for his shortcomings. john, remarkably, wrote, spoke about, and acted on the ways in which he fell short. in an excellent recent hbo biography, mccain subjected himself to accountability for chapters he would rather have left forgotten in history. in talking about the 2000 primaries, rather than blaming the opponents and their dirty tricks for his loss, john took responsibility, for standing up in south carolina against the practice of flying the confederate flag over the capital. and he addressed the association with the keating five scandal. he was cleared, but he viewed that as part of the larger and growing problem of campaign finance that has threatened the ethics of all who served here. and rather than moving past it, he owned it and acted on it and worked relentlessly with senator feingold until they passed the mccain-feingold campaign finance reform bill. john used his hardest personal experience to make

john: grant what is joining us. attorney general in arizona in the 1990s. also chief of staff to john mccain when he was a congressm congressman. grant, thank you for being here tonight. >> no problem. thank you for having me. john: he spent two terms as a member of congress before moving on to the senate and did you know this man was going to have the political career that ultimately he had, six terms in the senate, to run for president? >> well, you know, frumpy much day one our goal was to get john to the senate. he belonged there and it was foremost on her mind so, i think, that was our for legal and when i first met john mccain right after he moved here to arizona, i'm a native arizona in, and i like nelson who is this guy, he's moving here and going to run for congress and i met him and walked out of the meeting and immediately thought wow, this guy is amazing. i was for him and thought, yeah, he could go all the way but wherever he wanted to go before let's talk about what happened now and is my understanding that under arizona law the person who replaces him will be appointed by the governor and t

some voices are so vibrant, it is hard to think of them stilled. john mccain was a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order. president george w. bush goes on to say, he was a public servant in the finest traditions of our country. and to me, he was a friend who i'll deeply miss. laura and i send our heartfelt sympathies to cindy and the entire mccain family. and our thanks to god for the life of john mccain. that statement, just into us from president george w. bush on the passing of senator john mccain. tom brokaw now joins us on the phone. veteran anchor here at nbc news and, tom, you just heard the statement coming from george w. bush. so heartfelt. >> it's the nature of politics. they had a very bitter fight for the republican nomination for president. and you may remember that john mccain beat george bush in new hampshire. and that was stunning to the bush campaign. so, they went after john mccain with money, moguls and chalk, when they got to south carolina. and john mccain didn't have the fi firepower in terms of money and organization to kee

was also john mccain. you're looking for argument john mccain was a patriot in the tradition of the founders can't think of a better one. >> when you say a personal reservoir of good will. when you remember that moment when obama, the obamacare vote was on and john mccain walked in in the middle of the night, i was on air when it happened and he put his thumbs up and then he turned it down and that was the death knell of obamacare. charlie sykes, one had to have a personal reservoir of good will that was very, very, very large to survive that moment. >> yes, and i don't think we should understate how angry many of the republican base has been at john mccain. >> absolutely. >> and many of them haven't been able to set this aside. the darker side of american politics is watching the attacks on john mccain from both the right and the left. but obviously, that's not the dominant message today. >> charlie, one hopes that john mccain's life's work serves as a role model for other elected officials. in republican circles right now, as they look to other members of the party other elected officials, do you see any

a >> to help him back in hisfrie district and john mccain said yes.ndship.entral i it was the beginning of a friendship. i i i still remember and i still. was think john for his act of kindness. ique it was my first exposure to the unique style of communication america would know as the straight breath sitting back interview was the biggest actn for which i am still grateful there is a joke about he says in this a private fight work anyone get into it? i think his name may have been r making. everybody knew. everybody knew her served with him for any period of timeiod ct remember. i remember him walking up to me getting within an inch of my face chewing me out about the article he had read in the chicago tribuneed aroun. he was so mad he was about to explode and he walked away and i said what did i say? i cannot remember the article. and id back erredreferred to and i could not understand his lo anger i have been friends for se long to get ready for the round is that it wasn't that bad after all we are still friends. a typical john mccain a volcanic temper but a loving approach it c liefs.

was an overwhelming amount of the time. when he felt he couldn't be, he spoke up, there was no peeking and hiding with john mccain. we as ary have lost one of our iconic political leaders with the passing of john mccain. he was a brave man, as evidenced by his experience during the vietnam war, a hero by any reasonable analysis of that term. a public servant. he was a warrior, a public servant. he was exactly the kind of person that everybody hopes is in the u.s. congress, whether you're a democrat or a republican or something in between or outside. he's exactly the kind of person that you always hope will be representing us in washington. i knew john, i knew him well enough to admire many of his qualities from up close, having covered him overt the years. not well enough to call him an actual friend. he had many close friends, and his family of course. >> dan, you put forward a statement, i want to read part of it. in part you say mccain was controversial and far from perfect. in short, you say he was human but at best he echoed the highest ideals of american democracy. he spoke out fiercely against the current regime. i

the fact that john mccain was a hero was because of the way he endured torture on our behalf and because he ran over big issues and often interacted with people rudely in the senate they were inex-treufrpbgably linked. if we're going to honor john mccain we have to understand his impatience was a factor of his mission. how do we honor this man? it's an important conversation. my understanding is the two leaders are going to get together and put together a commission to deliberate over the next many weeks or months about the proper way to honor john mccain. i'm glad they're doing that. there's a lot of discussion about renaming a building after him or renaming a different committee room after him. some of those tributes may be the right tributes. i'm not meaning to prejudge that right now. obviously there's something hilarious about the idea that a senate office building may be renamed after john mccain because if you had the mccain s.o.b., it's obvious what john mccain would want you to call that mccain s.o.b. building all the time. so there are important things to talk about, and yet i

and in my early days as a new united states senator, i didn't seek the companionship of john mccain. that was a mistake on my part because despite his prickly nature, knowing john mccain became one of the most valuable experiences i've had in the senate. we began working together on one of those issues that john mccain and no one else in the united states senate could have the stature to deal with. certainly our military men and women, the defense of our nation, but we bonded in our efforts to see that the veterans of our nation receive the care that they deserve, that they receive their benefits from the department of veterans administration that they are entitled to, and that they earn through their service to our nation. that work, a mccain-moran bill, became a significant part of the v.a. mission act, and i learned in that experience the dedication that senator mccain has to those who served, to make sure that the mistakes that were made at the department of veterans affairs that may have cost veterans their lives never happen again. initially that resulted in the v.a. choice act, and jus

of his best friends, joe biden, on the opposite ticket. a rival. >> and joe lieberman who ended up an independent but was a democrat. in fact, as john mccain was dying, joe biden and joe lieberman went out to see him. they posted pictures of the three amigos. john mccain as my colleagues have said, was such a unique patriot and in fact, when he arrived in congress, i was covering him then in 1982. and he was already a celebrity as a freshman congressman because of the tortures that he had endured in vietnam and everybody knew about that. they wanted to be in his presence. they wanted to be somehow surrounded by his aura and he understood that but he also had a sense of humor about it because he knew that, you know, come on, it took me being, you know, being shot down to have this kind of effect. that sense of humor got him through a lot. but he also did have an awful temper. he would get very angry with his colleagues, members of the press and then he'd have to come back and fix it. in the last couple of days, tom, i have been going back over the many john mccain memories and the actual legislation, and the number of times that he t

a natural instinct for humor. and it would be done in very subtle ways, and sometimes it was some what to a sledgehammer. he was loved by all of us. john was an extraordinary inspiration. in prison, he suffered greatly as you know from his shootdown. he was a dear friend to both of us. he said that when john was more or less dumped in a room with a full body cast, he was not sure that he would survive. he talked about john's courage and his insistence that this was not going to be the place. he was getting out of here with all of us. and as you well know, he turned down an opportunity to get out early with those injuries. he is quite a hero in my book. >> neil: orson, i appreciate you taking the time. you are a different breed, the both of you. thank you, very, very much. >> nice to be with you, neil. >> neil: speaking of a whole different breed, world war ii, you talk about getting banged up in war and fighting for this country, the former republican presidential nominee, senator bob dole joins us on the phone. senator, thank you for taking the time. >> neil, thank you for having m me. >> neil: with mixed emotions on a day like this,

republican, he was a frequent critic of president trump. chris buckler looks back at his life. john mccain was a politician of principle. a patriot who believed in his country, and fought for it at tremendous cost to himself. as a young navy pilot, he was shot down over hanoi, interrogated and tortured. his capture saw a potential propaganda coup, when his father became the commander of us forces in vietnam and offered him release. but john mccain refused despite the many beatings he had suffered. on his return, he was hailed as a war hero and entered politics. and would eventually spend 35 years representing republicans inside congress. but he was fiercely independent and often spoke out against the party, notably challenging the influence of big money on american politics. the party establishment will not finish me off anywhere. why is that? because i will break the iron triangle in washington of money, lobbying and legislation and they know would that would be very, very disruptive financially to a lot of people's lives. he may have challenged washington, but he was respected her

john's death has hit the country so hard. yes, he was a long-serving senator with a remarkable record. yes, he was a two-time presidential candidate who captured the support and imagination of the american people. and, yes, john was a war hero to demonstrated extraordinary courage. i think of john and my son when i think of ingersoll's words, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor skorns to compromise with death, that is heroism. everybody knows that about john. but i don't think it fully explains why the country has been so take been i john's passing. i think it's something more intangible. i think it's because they knew john believed so deeply and so passionately in the soul of america. he made it easier for them to have confidence and faith in america. his faith in the core values of this nation made them somehow feel it more genuinely themselves. his conviction that we, as a country, would never walk away from the sacrifices generations of americans have made to defend liberty and freedom and human dignity around the world. it made average americans proud of themselves and their country. his belief, and it was deep, that americans can do anything, withst

of john mccain. but captivity did not diminish john's sense of calling or his commitment to mission. as he would later say, i fell in love with my country when i was a prisoner in someone else's. after he made it home, john traded service in the uniform of the united states for service in congress, exchanging the rank of captain for congressman and later senator. for 35 years, john served in these very halls under this very dome. and he fought for what he believed in. in my years in congress, and as vice president, we did not always agree either. he almost always noticed. but his support for limited government for tax reform and our armed forces surely left our nation more prosperous and secure, and he will be missed. as president trump said yesterday, we respect his service to the country. like many of you gathered here, i also had the privilege of traveling with senator mccain to visit our troops overseas. earlier this week, i told cindy of a time on a trip through iraq after another 18 hour day, when i was literally falling asleep in the middle of a dinner with iraqi officials, after the dinner, john, who was more than 20 years older than me, wal

john's death hit the country so hard. yes, he was a long-serving senator with a remarkable record. yes, he was a two-time candidate who captured the imagination of the american people. and yes, john was a war hero with demonstrated a string and the courage. i think of john and my sunlight of think of ingersoll's words. when on her scores to compromise with death, that is heroism. everybody knows that about john. but i don't think it fully explains why the country has been so taken by john's passing. i think it's something more intangible. i think it's because they knew john believed so deeply and so passionately in the soul of america that he made it easier for them to have confidence and faith in america. his faith in the core values of this nation made them somehow feel it more genuinely themselves. his conviction that we, the country, would never walk away from the sacrifices generations of americans have me to defend liberty and freedom and human dignity around the world. it made average americans proud of themselves and their country. deep that, and it was , americans can do anything, withstand anything, achieve anything was both unflagging

john was right out here in the an telephone -- ante room. he was in a wheelchair. he had a brace on his leg necessary because of the chemotherapy and his voice was faltering. we sat and we talked first about the sesta legislation and cindy's role. john always had a funny line, in this case he joked saying, passing that legislation will save my marriage. then he started talking about his kids. he went into detail about what they were doing, especially his sons in the military and what they were accomplishing and his daughter megan and her work in the media world and how proud he was of them. his voice strengthened and his eyes shown with proud as he talk bd each of them. i muttered something about that being another part of his legacy, and he gave me that crooked smile. family and country first. my wife jean and i send our condolences to john's amazing wife, cindy, to his seven proud sons and daughter, and to the entire mccain family. godspeed, john mccain. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. sasse: thank you, mr. president. like so many today, i rise to honor john mcc

of senator john mccain. it marks a deep loss for this country, the state of arizona, and above all his family and friends. john mccain was an honorable public servant who sacrificed greatly to serve his country in uniform and as a lawmaker proudly represented the people of arizona. mr. president, i will always remember the bipartisan luncheon that we had. when senator mccain recounted his experiences as a prisoner of war in vietnam. there wasn't a dry eye in our caucus. in my visit to vietnam, i had a chance to visit the hanoi hilton and see firsthand the place where john mccain acted so bravely. he was truly an american hero. i'd like to express my deepest sympathies and condolences to cindy, their children, and their family at this very difficult time. in his final letter to americans, senator mccain reminded us that, and i quote, we are citizens of the world's greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. we are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. for nearly a dozen years in the united states senate, i have watched my friend senator mcca

john's death hit the country so hard. yes, he was a long-serving senator with a remarkable record. yes, he was a two-time presidential candidate who captured the support and imagination of the american people and, yes, john was a war hero, demonstrated extraordinary courage. i think of john and my son when i think of ingersoll's words when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate and honor scorns to compromise with death, that is heroism. everybody knows that about john. but, i don't think it fully explains why the country has been so taken by john's passing. i think it's something more intangible. i think it's because they knew john believed so deeply and so passionately in the soul of america. he made it easier for them to have confidence and faith in america. his faith in the core values of this nation made them somehow feel it more genuinely themselves. his conviction that we, as a country, would never walk away from the sacrifice generations of americans have made to defend liberty and freedom and dignity around the world. it made average americans proud of themselves and their country. his belief, and it was deep, that americans can do anything, withstand anything, a

was, extraordinary, one-of-a-kind. you called him a lion. i wished there were more john mccains but he was one-of-a-kind. >> senator, it strikes me in covering the senate years ago and for a long time, it was a boy's club. the men of the senate and john mccain has always mentored younger women when me came into the senate. hillary clinton, people in different parties, amy klobuchar in armed services and other committees. >> i'll tell -- johnny ernst. and john traveled with her. and john very much, he judged you on your ability and as you know, he has very strong daughters and he to me really -- that was part of his core. and he could see when people were capable and he wanted to give them the opportunity and to give them the help and guidance so they could succeed. >> and you traveled with -- and we're look at pictures in the senate of you in the senate briefing room with john mccain, with lindsey graham. that friendship may have been strained in recent months or years because of the effect of donald trump, but they really -- they and joe lieberman and the others were su

was the hallmark of military service as well as his work. see in the senate he was a consequential leader with the most critical issues facing our country. of john mccain was the most respected voice on national defense and for good government is worth as much as a bond in washington as much as in vietnam.elieve mme. president i would like to share with my colleagues a story that i believe demonstrates then essential character of john mccain. in november of 2010 john wasn part of a national delegation on asia security stage was security conference in nova scotia.erted bad weather caused the light to be diverted to maine where i live. i shortly received a phone call colleaes on went john and my colleagues from their unplanned visit. as it happened the truth greeters ricky airport at the same time this legendary groupee of has greeted more than 1.5 million service members either leaving to go overseas or returning home since 2,003 never missing a single flight even in bad weather for the middle of the night and that presiding officer i believe who also served for country so well greer senator ernst was one of those greeted by the truth greeters. r

a hero. the great honor of my life was to serve in the company of heroes. >> john s. ain the third was born august 29th, 1936 to a multi-generational family on the base of panama canal zone. his father jack mccain became a you are four star admiral. his grandfather was also an admiral. for young john mccain, entry into the naval academy was a fore gone conclusion. he established a reputation as a rebel and a party boy. >> we really did have the most enjoyable times, perhaps i've hood in my life was that period at the naval academy as like minded but not as assertive in their rebellion >> he well knowledgeable. well read in history. he was a strong leader. you knew when he was in the room. he had a lot of energy. always had a superb sense of humor. that's what attracted him to a lot of people. >> reporter: upon graduating from the naval academy, fifth from the bottom of his class, he decided to become an aviator. his first experience with combat came when he was shipped to vietnam in 1967. he was assigned to the uss four star and in july of that year it was at the cente

john was not. if there was ever a senator entitled to take himself seriously, it was john. yet, he didn't. he effervesed to the annoyance of some our colleagues. here, too, john engendered lifetime loyalty and affection and respect. lindsey and joe and kelly were his great amigos, none greater than lindsey. but many of us loved him well. millions of americans saw john mccain give the famous c-span thumbs down that put an end to repeal and replace. they probably did not see what happened next. having just cast what was a devastating vote for many of his colleagues, he went back to his seat and from my seat here across the chamber, i saw john's colleagues gently start moving toward him. they may have hated his vote, but there was nevertheless this gentle flow of bodies moving to stand around and near him. his friend dan sullivan of alaska was one who came down from the back row, just to stand near john in the aisle. hate the vote, love the man. this place can be complicated. john could be annoying. in munich accepting an award for john his beloved cindy said, i love him most of the time. his temper could be explosive. i read

at the funeral of his biographer a friend and colleague of mine from the reagan years, bob tin berg was a fellow veet flam veteran who was wounded in vietnam. he was the biographer of john mccain in knighton gail song. when bob was buried, he read the same lines in john mccain's book as a closing poem. called rec question eem. under the wide and starry sky, dig the grave and let my lai. graddy live and gladly die and i laid me down with a will. there be the verse you grave for me. here he lies where he long to be. home is the sailor home from sea and the hunter home the hill. those are the last words in the restless waiver and also as kelly o'donnell rejoins me from arizona, it's also what john mccain read at his own father's funeral. kelly, he was the say sailor. he was the naval aviator. that's where he will end. >> that will be a very fitting and appropriate final place for john mccain because navy blue and gold was certainly in his blood. he talked to me so many times about his love of the nav of course, his son who bears his name jack mccain also a naval aviator. there is another john mccain, his grandson who is just a toddler. one might expect he might wear a unif

was, extraordinary, one-of-a-kind. you called him a lion. i wished there were more johnccains but he was one-of-a-kind. >> senator, it strikes me in covering the senate years ago and for a long time, it was a boy's club. the men of the senate and john mccain has always mentored younger women when me came into the senate. hillary clinton, people in different parties, amy klobuchar in armed services and other committees. >> i'll tell -- johnny ernst. and john traveled with her. and john very much, he judged you on your ability and as you know, he has very strong daughters and he to me really -- that was part of his core. and he could see when people were capable and he wanted to give them the opportunity and to give them the help and guidance so they could succeed. >> and you traveled with -- and we're look at pictures in the senate of you in the senate briefing room with john mccain, with lindsey graham. that friendship may have been strained in recent months or years because of the effect of donald trump, but they really -- they and joe lieberman and the others were such

of 2014 when ik was running for the first time. john mccain came to campaign on my behalf. it was remarkable to see how veterans responded to him. a schedule that is legendary for john mccain. louisiana, andin lafayette, drove up the length of the state and then came back to new orleans in one day. others would've been tired. he was energized. he taught me about social media. folks would wish to have their picture taken and he would take a selfie and say, posted on facebook. way, his contact with went to everybody who those folks were reaching out to through facebook. even that is not the story of which i wish to tell. had this incredibly intense schedule, meeting one person after another. as we were walking out, a fellow handed john mccain and out. he said, this is from a fellow vietnam veteran. he cannot come. he would love to hear from you. handed john mccain and out. here's his phone number. we get in the car and john mccain picks up his phone and calls. he says, this is john mccain. i'm sorry your under the weather. tell me about it. he spoke to the man. as one vietnam veteran to another, reaching through that wire, taking th

tell us about it. >> it was one of the best moments of the campaign and it was a typical example of who john sharp disagreements on policy and it was a tough campaign and they were punching and counter punching but john had a sense of honor and sense of decency about what campaigns should be about and he wasn't about to let that kind of attack go unanswered. even if it was on his opponent. and i can tell you during the campaign there are a number of times when consultants and advisers suggested that john should do ads criticizing president -- then senator obama about his relationship with reverend wright and john mccain flat out refused. he said he didn't want to see ads like that, that people are talking about that his job was to win but if he couldn't win reaching out to the better angels of our nature, he would rather lose. and he did take great job in that campaign and there were folks who would want to kploit those issues. >> you had a long friendship, spanned back decades, thousands of places across the country from your days on his campaign. you've been visiting with him monthly durin

a statement of praise but president trump didn't want it released. >> you don't meet many great men as you go through life. john mccain was one of them. >> i'm very happy with what i've been able to do. i'm able to celebrate a wonderful life. >> this is "new day." >> very nice to hear his words of gratitude, even when he was delivered with such a bad news about his disease, but he still was so grateful for his life and the challenges in it. >> he was an author and co-author of so many books and he put those books on audio tape sean listened to a whole bunch of them. it's so great to hear him speak those words. you hear the meaning in his voice. you hear his depth of gratitude to the country in his voice. >> good morning, everyone, welcome to your new day, 8:00 in the east, he was a navy pilot and war hero six-term senator and presidential nominee, the life and legacy of john mccain will be officially honored for the next five days. memorials will be held in his home state of arizona. later this week he will lie in state before laid to rest at the naval academy in annapolis. jake tapper asked senator mccain about how he sa

and, yes, john was with a -- was a war hero. i must think of son, when the will defies fear, when duty throws a gaunt let down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death, that is heroism. everybody knows that about john. but i don't think it fully explains why the country has been so taken by john's passing. i think it's something more intangible. i think it's because they knew john believed so deeply and so passionately in the soul of america, that he made easier for them to have confidence and faith in america. his faith in the core values of this nation made them somehow feel it more genuinely themselves. his conviction that we, the country, would never walk away from the sacrifices generations of americans have made to defend liberty and freedom and human dignity around the world. it made average americans proud of themselves and their country. his belief -- and it was deep -- that americans can do anything, withstand anything, achieve anything, was both unflagging and ultimately reassuring that this man believed that so strongly.

of john mccain. but captivity did not diminish john's sense of calling. or his commitment to mission. as he would later say, i fell in love with my country when i was a prisoner in someone else's. after he made it home, john traded service in the uniform of the united states for service in congress. exchanging the rank of captain for congressman and later senator. for 35 years, john served in these very halls under this very dome. and he fought for what he believed in. in my years in congress and as vice-president, we didn't always agree either. and he almost always noticed. but his support for limited government, for tax reform and support for our armed forces surely left our nation more prosperous and more secure. and he will be missed. as president trump said yesterday, we respect his service to the country. like many of you gathered here, i also had the privilege of traveling with senator mccain to visit our troops overseas. earlier this week, i told cindy of a time on a trip through iraq, after another 18-hour day, when i was literally falling asleep in the middle of a dinner with iraqi officials, after the dinner, john, who was more than 20 yea