It’s with sadness that we report that Arizona Senator John McCain, 81, has died on Aug. 25 after a long and brutal battle with brain cancer. McCain’s office said in a statement, “Senator John Sidney McCain III died at 4:28 p.m. on August 25, 2018. With the Senator when he passed were his wife Cindy and their family. At his death, he had served the United States of America faithfully for sixty years.” Senator McCain announced in July 2017 that he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive, cancerous brain tumor that required multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy. Nevertheless, he took it all with stride. McCain’s family announced that the senator passed away one day after he opted to end treatment in August 2018. He will be sorely missed.
Before his death, the senator underwent emergency surgery for an intestinal infection, known as diverticulitis. His daughter, The View cohost Meghan McCain, announced the news on her show with tears in her eyes, but assured the audience that her father was recovering just fine after the procedure. Meghan’s husband, conservative pundit Ben Domenech, tweeted on April 28 that his father-in-law told him to “take care of Meghan” after he passed. His health unfortunately took a turn for the worse in months to come.
We all knew that McCain was a fighter. He was captured by enemy soldiers during the Vietnam War, and held as a prisoner of war for five, agonizing years. He was repeatedly tortured throughout his imprisonment, but refused to give up military secrets to the US enemy. He suffered devastating injuries, but persisted. McCain served as a senator of Arizona from 1987 to his death. He ran for president in 2008 against Barack Obama with Sarah Palin as his running mate. Just days after announcing his cancer diagnosis and undergoing his first round of chemotherapy and radiation, he returned to Congress for an important vote. Nothing could stop him from doing his job and serving his country.
After his cancer diagnosis, daughter Meghan released a passionate and loving statement about her father on Twitter: It won’t surprise you to learn that in all this, the one of us who is most confident and calm is my father. He is the toughest person I know. The cruelest enemy could not break him. The aggressions of political life could not bend him. So he is meeting this challenge as he has every other. Cancer may afflict him in many ways: but it will not make him surrender. Nothing ever has.”
Senator McCain is survived by his wife of 38 years, Cindy McCain, and his five kids: Meghan McCain, Bridget McCain, John Sidney McCain IV, James McCain, and Sidney McCain. He is also survived with his 105-year-old mother, Roberta McCain.
