[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 144 (Tuesday, August 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5976-S5978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Remembering John McCain

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, last week, we lost an incredible 
patriot, Senator, and American--our friend and colleague Senator John 
McCain. My heart goes out to his wife Cindy, his mom, his daughters, 
and family.
  In the Navy, John exemplified heroism and bravery, and in the Senate, 
he was a mentor to so many of us. He taught us how to work with leaders 
on the world stage, but then he taught us something just as important; 
that is, how to work with each other when we are here and back home.
  This past month, my husband and I got to visit John and Cindy at 
their ranch in Arizona one last time. Even while battling brain cancer, 
he continued to be engaged in the issues of our time. He continued to 
have that signature McCain humor and that grit.
  My last memory of John was, I had brought a few of his books to him, 
and he was getting tired and pointed to one sentence in one of the 
books and said to me: That, that is what matters.
  The sentence was this: ``Nothing in life is more liberating than to 
fight for a cause larger than yourself.'' No one proved that more than 
John McCain.
  Lindsey Graham just gave beautiful remarks about his best friend--his 
best friend who had taught him so much, who taught him how to pick 
yourself up and be resilient when things go wrong, who taught him how 
to always put your country first.
  I saw that resilience firsthand when John invited me to go with him 
and Lindsey on a trip to Asia. It was an incredible moment in his own 
life. It was right after he had lost that Presidential election--
something he had dreamed of attaining for so long, and it didn't work 
out. Did he just go home and not do his work? No. He dove right in and 
took a young Senator with him to Asia, along with his best friend 
Lindsey, and some of his most beloved staff.
  What I saw on that trip I will never forget. He was literally a few 
months out of losing a Presidential election, but he was still excited 
about the world around him. He was excited when the Defense Secretary 
called him with something he wanted him to work on with him.
  He had great humor when he read about President Obama's latest 
purchase of a dog and other things, and he just said it and smiled and 
put the newspaper down.
  He loved introducing me to people whom I thought I would never meet, 
and he loved sharing those stories. On every leg of the trip between 
countries, he would read books. He would read books about World War II. 
He would read books about anything in history that he thought was 
relevant to today. He loved it for the sake of history, but he also 
loved it because he believed history teaches us something; that you 
can't ignore history; that you take the lessons of history and bring 
them with you forward.
  John's own history was incredible--a Navy pilot during Vietnam. After 
being shot down, he was held and tortured as a prisoner of war for over 
5 years in that infamous Hanoi Hilton.
  On the trip to Asia, we went to that prison, and I saw the cell where 
John had been held for those 5 years--the cell in which he made the 
decision to allow other prisoners to be released before him because he 
didn't want to look like he got special treatment. That was a moment I 
will never forget. Then, we went on a tour of the rest of the prison. 
Again, with that signature wry humor and resilience, as the guide was 
showing us a new exhibit, which included happy pictures of prisoners of 
war sitting around a Christmas tree or playing table tennis, and she 
proudly showed us those pictures, he nodded his head with all the media 
behind him and then whispered to me: I don't remember any of this.
  We then went to an exhibit that was brand-new of his flight suit, and 
it was a pristine flight suit with his name embroidered on it. Next to 
it was a picture of him and the plane being shot down, and the flight 
suit was all torn up. They would show us the flight suit, and he took 
pictures and smiled. Then, as we were walking away, he said to me: That 
was not my flight suit.
  That was John McCain. When he walked around the streets of Vietnam, a 
place where he had been held prisoner for 5 years, he was like a rock 
star. Do you know why? Because he had come back there so many times, 
bringing different Americans with him, working on issues that mattered 
to them, working on trade issues, normalizing relations. They loved him 
there. That was him; that was John McCain.

  The other thing about him was there were so many Senators that he 
mentored, but I always loved how he would take some of the new women 
Senators under his wing and make sure they went on these trips. In many 
of the rooms where we met with foreign leaders, it would be, again, 
John and Lindsey and I. Of course, Senator McCain went first as the 
leader of the delegation, and then all of these male foreign leaders 
would next look at Lindsey Graham because they figured he was the next 
senior, which was correct. But John McCain would stop

[[Page S5977]]

them and say: I am sorry. Senator Klobuchar is the lead Democrat in the 
delegation, and she will be going next. At that singular moment, he 
would send a message to the foreign leaders: Yes, she is to be treated 
with respect and equally; she is the Democratic lead on our trip.
  Part of being a mentor to someone is also urging them on, and many of 
us here know what it was like to get one of those backhanded McCain 
compliments, which didn't always seem like a compliment but truly was.
  My favorite was when I would do some kind of Sunday show or something 
like that, and he would have liked what I said, I would have guessed, 
but he would call and leave a message: Well, you did a pretty good job 
on that show, talking about immigration--well, pretty good for a 
Communist.
  I know some of my Republican colleagues were never called a 
Communist, but that was his word of affection for many of us on the 
Democratic side.
  I think part of this work that he did in mentoring women Members and 
staff had to do with the incredibly strong women in his own life--his 
wife, Cindy; his mother; his daughter, Meghan; and his family. That was 
a part of John McCain that I think people don't know.
  The last thing I will mention--and Lindsey talked about this--is that 
his legacy must live on; that is, what he taught us about working with 
the rest of the world.
  The last trip I took with John McCain was to Lithuania and Latvia, 
Estonia, Ukraine, and Georgia. He planned that trip right after the 
last Presidential election. The President-elect had been talking 
negatively about NATO, and there had been discussions about our 
dealings with Europe. I think he felt it was very important to show the 
world that there were people in the Senate, leaders in the Senate, who 
stood by those Baltic nations that had declared their independence, and 
that is why we went on that trip.
  Somehow we found ourselves on New Year's Eve in a blizzard in the 
middle of the night on live Ukrainian TV with President Poroshenko. The 
President of Ukraine wanted to show American support for their 
democracy and their quest to stay independent despite the foreign 
invasion by Russia. So as we stood there, the President gave Senator 
McCain a machine gun, a Ukrainian-made machine gun. They are very proud 
of their armaments there. McCain was holding it, and then he went to 
Senator Graham, and he gave Senator Graham a pistol. I was standing 
there, and McCain said to me: I wonder what you're going to get. It 
looks like you're getting a flat box.
  I opened up the box, and it had two daggers in it. Senator McCain 
decided that I was deserving of a pistol and somehow arranged to have 
one brought to me.
  But then what happened was the Navy confiscated every single weapon, 
and a year later, Senator McCain was still saying to me: What happened 
to my machine gun?
  That trip was more than just about that delightful moment. That trip 
was about his standing with us, with all of these leaders, to send that 
incredibly important message in his own words from a few years before, 
in 2013, when he spoke to that pro-democracy crowd of protestors in 
Ukraine, telling them: America is with you. And they roared ``thank 
you'' back at him. He said: ``The United States has a special 
responsibility to champion human rights--in all places, for all 
peoples, and at all times.''
  So he would send this message to our allies. He would look for those 
hot spots. He would look for those moments when it was necessary to 
show our allies and friends and those struggling for human rights and 
democracy that they had a friend in the United States.
  He knew that supporting our allies is also about supporting 
ourselves--and I will use John's words here--in supporting ``their hope 
. . . their faith . . . and their friendship.'' That was John McCain.
  So when I think about protecting the future of our country and the 
work that must be done in this Chamber and his devotion to making 
friends on both sides of the aisle, I think about the decency that he 
brought to politics, not always--not always happy every moment of his 
life in politics, but always decent. That was best reflected at a rally 
that happened in my State in the waning days of his Presidential 
campaign when a woman stood up, when he could have just embraced what 
she said, but he didn't. The woman said of then-candidate Obama: ``I 
have read about him. . . . He's . . . an Arab.''
  Without missing a beat, John shook his head and very politely said: 
``No, ma'am. He's a decent family man . . . [whom] I just happen to 
have disagreements with.''
  That is not something you plan for; that is not an arc of your career 
where you have a moment and a strategy. That was his reaction in the 
moment when he knew that his dream was slipping away from him, and he 
could have said just anything about his opponent because he was mad 
that he wasn't winning. But he didn't. He took the high road. That was 
John McCain.
  As we move forward in this Chamber, I hope we will remember his 
words, that the most liberating thing in life is ``to fight for a cause 
larger than [ourselves].'' He did that every single day, and we must 
now carry on that torch.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, today I want to join my colleague from 
Minnesota and other Senators in talking about our colleague, an 
American icon, who played an outsized role in our Nation's great story.
  Navy captain, Congressman, and U.S. Senator, John McCain was first 
and foremost a patriot. Throughout his whole life, a very prolific 
life, he lived the motto of his 2008 Presidential campaign, which was 
simply ``Country First.''
  I had the privilege of helping Senator McCain during that 2008 
campaign. I was in the private sector then. I took time off to spend 
about 6 weeks with him, traveling around the country. I was on the 
campaign trail with a group of his loyal friends, including the first 
friend, Lindsey Graham.
  I had known John for many years, but you really get to know somebody 
in a different way during the intensity and the pressure of a national 
campaign. I played the role of his opponent, then-Senator Barack Obama, 
to prepare him for his debates, and I took that role very seriously--
maybe too seriously on occasion. It was my job to get under his skin 
and prepare him well for the debates, and I did it.
  Many of my colleagues will tell you he was a fighter and a tough 
competitor and did not mince words. I was on the other end of that. 
After some spirited debates, I was very glad that in the real world I 
was actually on his side.
  Needless to say, he wasn't happy with me during those debate 
sessions. I think Cindy McCain still hasn't forgiven me, by the way, 
for some of the things I said during the debate preparation, playing 
the role of then-Senator Obama. Even 2 years later, after I was first 
elected and joined him here in the U.S. Senate, he would introduce me 
to reporters here in the hall by saying: That's the jerk who played 
Obama.
  The John McCain I got to know through the intensity of that 
Presidential campaign was principled. He was patriotic, he was 
passionate, and his heart was in the right place.
  He also had a sense of humor that was intact. I remember when a bad 
poll would come out, he would gather us around and say: Don't worry. 
It's always darkest before it's pitch black.
  One of the memories I will never forget was during one of those 
debate preparations in a theater at the Morgan Library in New York 
City. At the start of the debate practice, I was backstage behind a 
curtain because I wanted it to be realistic; I would be coming out from 
behind the curtain and going to the podium, just as you would do in a 
Presidential debate. It was in late September 2008--I think it was 
September 24--just as the financial crisis was hitting and hitting 
hard. It is difficult to go back to that moment today, but the mindset 
at the time was that we were in a true crisis. The stock market had 
crashed, and the country was mired in financial turmoil.
  As I stood there behind the curtain, getting ready to come out, John 
McCain and two of his top campaign advisers were on the stage, getting 
into their own debate, and their debate was about whether to suspend 
the campaign, postpone the first debate that was scheduled to occur 
just a few days

[[Page S5978]]

later, and fly back to Washington, DC, to try to work out some 
legislative solution to bolster the then really shaky financial system.
  I distinctly remember one of the advisers raising concerns that 
suspending the campaign would hurt them politically. They just couldn't 
do it.
  By the way, that was a point of view that was shared by pretty much 
every political pundit and probably would be today.
  I remember John McCain pushing back. He said: It is the right thing 
to do, to suspend this campaign. If we don't fix this, there won't be a 
country left to govern.
  It is the right thing to do. If we don't fix this, there won't be a 
country left to govern.
  He suspended his campaign and he returned to Washington to jump into 
the arena--like his hero, Teddy Roosevelt--and to try to fix things. 
John McCain was less worried about the political fallout than he was 
about what was at stake for our great country. Country first.
  He didn't win that campaign, but I think he taught all of us a lesson 
about how to lose. He gave a generous concession speech that put 
country first. He was someone a lot of us looked to for counsel and 
worked with on many issues, often national security issues, in my case. 
He was an expert. I worked on some issues like Ukraine, but also on 
other matters.
  Just in the last year, he played a key role in helping us enact 
reforms here in the U.S. Senate that are making a real difference right 
now in combating online sex trafficking. This was through legislation 
that I had introduced called the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, or 
SESTA. This SESTA legislation was something he was very involved with. 
Cindy McCain has a long history in this area. She is a real expert on 
it, and she was instrumental in the legislation and these reforms, as 
was the McCain Institute.
  John had a passion for it. He was the first Republican cosponsor of 
the bill and a passionate advocate. He believed in his heart that the 
sale of women and children online was just wrong, and it should never 
happen, certainly not in this country in this century.
  About 6 months ago, this legislation, the SESTA bill, was about to be 
voted on. After getting permission from my Democratic coauthor, Senator 
Richard Blumenthal, who agreed with me, I approached John McCain, and I 
asked him if we could name this anti-sex-trafficking legislation ``the 
McCain bill,'' after him and after Cindy and all the work he had done--
his passion for it. His response was immediate and classic McCain. He 
said: No, that wouldn't be right. I strongly support the legislation, 
but you all did the work. It isn't about me; it's about getting this 
done for those women and those children. Country first.
  For me, this Chamber is never going to be the same place without him. 
It is as simple as that, and Lindsey Graham said that well earlier. For 
me, this place, the Senate, and our country, for that matter, are 
better off because of him. He dedicated his life to those liberties 
that we enjoy as Americans, and he took it upon himself to defend and 
represent them and try to spread them around the globe.
  He joined the U.S. Navy to protect our country, spent more than 5 
years as a prisoner of war, was stubbornly patriotic to his own 
detriment, and served in the House of Representatives and in the U.S. 
Senate, representing not just his Arizona constituents, which he did 
well, but as he viewed it, the entire country. Country first.
  Now, as a gesture of our Nation's gratitude for the patriotic path he 
blazed, Senator McCain will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol, draped in 
the flag that he spent his life serving.
  John McCain was a hero in the flesh right here in this century, and I 
feel blessed for having known him.
  The last conversation I remember having with John was right out here 
in the anteroom off the Senate floor. It was during his very last days 
here. 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 Meghan and her work in the media 
world, how proud he was of them. His voice strengthened, and his eyes 
shown with pride as he talked about 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 Jane and I send our condolences to John's amazing wife Cindy, 
to his seven proud sons and daughters, and to the entire McCain family.
  Godspeed, John McCain.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I appreciate what my colleague from Ohio 
said. I appreciate his comments about Senator McCain and Cindy McCain. 
I made remarks on the floor earlier about Senator McCain in my tribute 
to him, as my colleagues are all doing, as we should, and as people 
have done so well.
  I appreciate particularly Senator Portman's comments about the sex 
trafficking issue that Senator McCain was so interested in, and Cindy 
really led the way. I saw Cindy at a conference in Cincinnati, Senator 
Portman's hometown. I live at the other end of the State. Her passion 
about that issue clearly infected John and his passion about that issue 
especially. North of Cincinnati, along the 75 corridor and especially 
in Toledo, we see how troubling that is. He took on so many issues that 
matter. I thank Rob for mentioning that.