US senator John McCain dies aged 81 after battle with brain cancer

US senator John McCain, a celebrated war hero known for reaching across the aisle in an increasingly divided America, died Saturday after losing a battle to brain cancer, his office said. He was 81.

“Senator John Sidney McCain III died at 4:28pm on August 25, 2018. With the senator when he passed were his wife Cindy and their family,” his office said in a statement.

“At his death, he had served the United States of America faithfully for 60 years.”

In July 2017, McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

One year of treatment failed to prevent his condition from worsening and on August 24 his family announced that he had chosen to discontinue medical care.

“Sen McCain, thank you for your service,” read a sign near the driveway of his home in a rural part of Sedona, Arizona, television footage showed, as a police escort accompanied the hearse that was to carry his body and local residents came bearing flowers for the late political titan.

“My heart is broken. I am so lucky to have lived the adventure of loving this incredible man for 38 years,” Cindy McCain wrote on Twitter. “He passed the way he lived, on his own terms, surrounded by the people he loved, in the place he loved best.”

After a long-standing rivalry and numerous public clashes between the pair, following the announcement of his death Donald Trump offered his “deepest sympathies and respect” to McCain’s family on Twitter.

Former President Barack Obama also issued a statement paying tribute to the 2008 Republican nominee.

He wrote: “Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did. But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own.

The vacancy created by McCain’s death narrowed the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate to 50 seats in the 100-member upper chamber, with Democrats controlling 49 seats. But Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is expected to appoint a member of his own party to succeed McCain.

That could also give Republicans a slight edge in the battle to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court in the weeks ahead, as McCain had been too ill to cast any votes this year.

Alternatively affable and cantankerous, McCain had been in the public eye since the 1960s, when as a naval aviator he was shot down during the Vietnam War and tortured by his North Vietnamese communist captors during 5-1/2 years as a prisoner.

He was edged out by George W. Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, but became his party’s White House candidate eight years later. After gambling on political neophyte Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, McCain lost in 2008 to Democrat Barack Obama, who became the first black US president.

McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was a frequent critic as well as a target of his fellow Republican, Trump, who was elected president in November 2016.

McCain denounced Trump for among other things his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders the senator described as foreign “tyrants.”

“Flattery secures his friendship, criticism his enmity,” McCain said of Trump in his memoir, “The Restless Wave,” which was released in May.

McCain denounced Trump for among other things his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders the senator described as foreign “tyrants.”

“Flattery secures his friendship, criticism his enmity,” McCain said of Trump in his memoir, “The Restless Wave,” which was released in May.

McCain in July had castigated Trump for his summit with Putin, issuing a statement that called their joint news conference in Helsinki “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”

He said Trump was “not only unable but unwilling to stand up to Putin.”

Sources close to McCain have said Trump would not be invited to the funeral.

McCain, a foreign policy hawk with a traditional Republican view of world affairs, was admired in both parties for championing civility and compromise during an era of acrid partisanship in US politics. But he also had a famous temper and rarely shied away from a fight. He had several with Trump.

McCain, a foreign policy hawk with a traditional Republican view of world affairs, was admired in both parties for championing civility and compromise during an era of acrid partisanship in US politics. But he also had a famous temper and rarely shied away from a fight. He had several with Trump.

He was the central figure in one of the most dramatic moments in Congress of Trump’s presidency when he returned to Washington shortly after his brain cancer diagnosis for a middle-of-the-night Senate vote in July 2017.

Still bearing a black eye and scar from surgery, McCain gave a thumbs-down signal in a vote to scuttle a Trump-backed bill that would have repealed the Obamacare healthcare law and increased the number of Americans without health insurance by millions.

Trump was furious about McCain’s vote and frequently referred to it at rallies but without mentioning McCain by name.

source: telegraph.co.uk

توفي السيناتور الجمهوري الأميركي جون ماكين ، عن عمر ناهز 81 عاما.

وذكر بيان أصدره مكتب السيناتور الراحل، أن ماكين توفي أمس السبت محاطا بعائلته.

وكان ماكين قد أصيب بسرطان الدماغ وخضع للعلاج بدءا من يوليو 2017 ، ثم غادر العاصمة واشنطن في ديسمبر الماضي، لمنزله بولاية أريزونا، وقرر التوقف عن تلقي العلاج أمس الأول الجمعة.

تجدر الإشارة إلى أن ماكين شارك كطيار في العمليات القتالية الأمريكية خلال حرب فيتنام، وفي عام 1967 أسقطت طائرته فوق هانوي، وتم أسره أكثر من خمس سنوات .

وبعد تقاعده من الجيش، دخل ماكين مضمار السياسة عام 1982 عندما انتخب في مجلس النواب عن ولاية أريزونا، وظل محتفظا بمقعده لفترتين، ثم انتخب في مجلس الشيوخ عام 1986، وأعيد انتخابه منذ ذلك الوقت.

في عام 2000، حاول ماكين، نيل ترشيح الحزب الجمهوري لانتخابات الرئاسة، لكنه خسر السباق أمام جورج بوش الابن..وفي عام 2008، ضمن تسمية الحزب في السباق الرئاسي في مواجهة المرشح الديمقراطي باراك أوباما، لكنه خسر أمامه أيضاز

ورغم خسارته مرتين، كان ماكين واحدا من أبرز السياسيين في واشنطن، وشغل فترة طويلة منصب رئيس لجنة الخدمات المسلحة بمجلس الشيوخ..وقضى أكثر من 35 عاما في الكونجرس ممثلا لأريزونا ..وقد أيد قرار شن الحرب الأمريكية على العراق عام 2003، وفي عام 2007 ساند قرار زيادة عدد القوات الأمريكية هناك.

وكان ماكين، من أبرز منتقدي الرئيس الأميركي دونالد ترمب، من داخل الحزب الجمهوري، حيث أعلن عن معارضته للعديد من سياساته ومواقفه الداخلية والخارجية.