Senator John McCain made a special visit to “The View,” Oct. 23, 2017, for his daughter Meghan McCain’s birthday.
As condolences poured in for Sen. John McCain from his political allies and foes alike, the Arizona Republican’s daughter, Meghan McCain, offered a heartfelt tribute to a father who “taught me how to live.”
“I was with my father at his end, as he was with me at my beginning,” Meghan McCain wrote in a statement. “In the thirty-three years we shared together, he raised me, taught me, corrected me, comforted me, encouraged me, and supported me in all things. He loved me, and I loved him.
“He taught me how to live. His love and his care, ever-present, always unfailing, took me from a girl to a woman — and he showed me what it is to be a man.”
She said now that her dad is gone, she is motivated more than ever to spend her life living up to “his example, his expectations, and his love.”
“My father’s passing comes with sorrow and grief for me, for my mother, for my brothers, and for my sisters,” wrote Meghan McCain, a co-host on ABC’s “The View.” “He was a great fire who burned bright, and we lived in his light and warmth for so very long. We know that his flame lives on in each of us. The days and years to come will not be the same without my dad — but they will be good days, filled with life and love because of the example he lived for us.”
She thanked admirers of her father for their prayers, well-wishes, and remembrances of the American war hero who became a straight-shooting politician and reveled in being a maverick.
“My father is gone, and I miss him only as an adoring daughter can,” she wrote. “But in this loss, and in this sorrow, I take comfort in this: John McCain, hero of the republic and to his little girl, wakes today to something more glorious than anything on this earth. Today the warrior entered his true and eternal life, greeted by those who have gone before him, rising to meet the Author of All Things: The dream is ended: this is the morning.”
Everyone from President Donald Trump, who had a rocky relationship with the longtime senator, to former President Barack Obama, his opponent in the 2008 presidential campaign, to Sarah Palin, his former running mate, were saddened by McCain’s death.
meghanmccain/Instagram“My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain,” President Trump tweeted. “Our hearts and prayers are with you!”
First lady Melania Trump also took to Twitter to express condolences, writing, “Our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathy to the McCain Family. Thank you Senator McCain for your service to the nation.”
First daughter Ivanka Trump, added: “Honoring the memory and legacy of Senator John McCain, an American patriot, who served our great nation with distinction. My prayers are with Senator McCain’s family and loved ones as our nation mourns his passing.”
Obama said he and McCain competed “at the highest level of politics.”
“But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher -– the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed,” Obama said in a statement. “We saw our political battles, even, as a privilege, something noble, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those high ideals at home, and to advance them around the world.
“We saw this country as a place where anything is possible –- and citizenship as our patriotic obligation to ensure it forever remains that way,” the statement continued.
Palin, whom McCain later said he regretted selecting as his vice presidential running mate, said the country lost “an American original.”
“Sen. John McCain was a maverick and a fighter, never afraid to stand for his beliefs,” she said in a tweet. “John never took the easy path in life — and through sacrifice and suffering he inspired others to serve something greater than self.
“John McCain was my friend,” she continued. “I will remember the good times. My family and I send prayers for Cindy and the McCain family.”
The 81-year-old Republican senior senator from Arizona and Vietnam War veteran revealed last summer that he had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, a fast-growing, aggressive type of brain tumor. In a statement released Friday morning, the McCain family said he has “surpassed expectations for survival” in the past year, but that the “progress of the disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict.”
Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILEHis wife Cindy McCain tweeted after his passing that her “heart is broken.”
“I am so lucky to have lived the adventure of loving this incredible man for 38 years,” she said. “He passed the way he lived, on his own terms, surrounded by the people he loved, in the place he loved best.”
Earlier in the day, she thanked well-wishers for their support.
“The entire McCain family is overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from around the world. Thank you,” Cindy McCain, who has been married to her husband for 38 years, wrote on Twitter Saturday morning.
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SOURCE: ABC News – MORGAN WINSOR, WIL CRUZ, BILL HUTCHINSON
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