Heidi Gutman/ABC via Getty Images(SEDONA, Ariz.) — Political allies and foes alike offered heartfelt condolences after the passing of Sen. John McCain Saturday night.
Everyone from President Trump, who had a rocky relationship with the longtime senator, to former President Obama, his opponent in the 2008 presidential campaign, to Sarah Palin, his former running mate, were saddened by McCain’s death.
“My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain,” the president tweeted. “Our hearts and prayers are with you!”
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.
Pain, 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.”
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 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.
The senator’s daughter, Meghan McCain, said: “I love you forever — my beloved father.”
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