[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 144 (Tuesday, August 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5966-S5967]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Remembering John McCain

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, when you walk by Senator McCain's desk and 
see the black drape and the bowl of white roses, it really underscores 
the loss. We lost a colleague. We lost a friend. The country lost a 
true public servant.
  We have heard the stories. After being shot down, spending all those 
years in the Hanoi Hilton, beaten nearly to death when he was fished 
out of the lake in downtown Hanoi, he continued to serve his country--
in the Navy, in Congress, in this Senate, and, of course, as the 
party's nominee for President.
  His call to serve and his sense of duty and honor is the legacy of 
John McCain. He is an example for all of us.
  He was a fighter, and he was funny too. Maybe it was the years in 
prison or the long line of military service or the sometimes tense 
humor of fighter pilots. Maybe it was that legacy of his family in the 
military, but he knew in his soul how special the United States was and 
what the United States could do for its people and for the world.
  Sometimes we forget the stories of the excruciating pain that Senator 
McCain went through as a POW. In 2000 David Foster Wallace, in Rolling 
Stone magazine, wrote an article. I want to give you some of the 
graphic details after he had been nearly beaten to death and his weight 
had gone down to 100 pounds. When they found out that his father was a 
four-star admiral and his grandfather was a four-star admiral, they 
decided they were going to offer him early release. This is what the 
author writes:

       McCain, 100 pounds and barely able to stand, refused 
     [release]. The U.S. military's Code of Conduct for Prisoners 
     of War said that POWs had to be released in the order they 
     were captured, and there were others who'd been in [that 
     prison] Hoa Lo a long time, and McCain refused to violate the 
     Code. The commandant, not pleased, right there in the office 
     had guards break his ribs, rebreak his arm, knock his teeth 
     out. McCain still refused to leave without the other POWs. 
     And so then he spent four more years in Hoa Lo [prison] like 
     this, much of the time in solitary, in the dark, in a closet-
     sized box called a ``punishment cell.'' Maybe you've heard 
     all this before . . . [there have certainly been] profiles of 
     John McCain. But try to imagine the moment between getting 
     offered early release and turning it down. Try to imagine it 
     was you. Imagine how loudly your most basic, primal self-
     interest would have cried out to you in that moment, and all 
     the ways you could rationalize accepting the [commandant's] 
     offer. Can you hear it? If so, would you refuse to go? You 
     simply can't know for sure. None of us can. It's hard to even 
     imagine the pain and the fear in that moment, much less how 
     you'd react.

  That was written 18 years ago about John. In that moment, you could 
summarize his courage, his strength, and his will to overcome. But here 
in the Senate we saw a leader who thought that public service was a 
noble calling,

[[Page S5967]]

a leader who always tried to do the right thing, who always put the 
people of his country ahead of himself--an individual who always 
believed that we, as Americans, can subscribe to a cause greater than 
ourselves.
  America is certainly going to miss John McCain. For this Senator and 
for Grace, as well, it was certainly a privilege to know the McCains 
and to look up to him as a role model, not only for this Senator but 
for the entire country.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.