Heidi Gutman/ABC via Getty Images(PHOENIX) — The wife of Sen. John McCain said she and her family are “overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support” they have received since announcing that McCain has decided to stop treatment for the aggressive brain cancer he has been battling for more than a year.

“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 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.”

“With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment,” the family’s statement continued. “Our family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection from John’s many friends and associates, and the many thousands of people who are keeping him in their prayers. God bless and thank you all.”

The senator’s daughter, Meghan McCain, said how “deeply appreciative” her family is for “all the love and generosity,” which she said has “given us strength to carry on.”

“My family is deeply appreciative of all the love and generosity you have shown us during this past year. Thank you for all your continued support and prayers. We could not have made it this far without you – you’ve given us strength to carry on,” Meghan McCain wrote on Twitter Friday, with her family’s statement attached.

Following the news, people across the political sphere took to social media to express their support and respect for John McCain.

One of his closest friends in the Senate, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said in a series of tweets that Cindy McCain and the family are providing the ailing senator and former presidential candidate with “continuing and abiding love, care, and dedication.”

“Cindy remains steadfast and is traveling every step of the way on this difficult journey with John. The love provided by Meghan and the McCain children to their father has been comforting to witness. The entire McCain clan is doing exactly what the McCains have done through generations — rise to the meet the challenge,” Graham tweeted. “In addition, John’s deeply loyal staff and devoted friends are pouring their hearts out and doing everything they can to make this burden bearable. John’s medical care providers represent the best of their profession. Above all else, I know John wants his family, friends and staff to understand how much he appreciates their love, care, and kindness.”

John McCain’s fellow senator from Arizona, Jeff Flake, tweeted, “God bless and keep this wonderful man and his family.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted, “Very sad to hear this morning’s update from the family of our dear friend @SenJohnMcCain. We are so fortunate to call him our friend and colleague. John, Cindy, and the entire McCain family are in our prayers at this incredibly difficult hour.”

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan tweeted, “John McCain personifies service to our country. The whole House is keeping John and his family in our prayers during this time.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York tweeted, “My thoughts and prayers are with Senator McCain and his family.”

Former Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted, “God bless John McCain, his family, and all who love him — a brave man showing us once again what the words grace and grit really mean.”

But Kelli Ward, a doctor and Republican Senate candidate from Arizona, continued to criticize John McCain on the campaign trail Friday, after the McCain family’s announcement.

“Are we going to elect a senator that is cut from the same cloth as Jeff Flake and John McCain?” Ward, who is also a former state senator, asked a crowd of supporters at a campaign event northeast of Phoenix. The crowd shouted back, “No.”

Responding to a question from ABC News on Saturday, Ward said she doesn’t regret anything she has said about John McCain.

“I feel for him,” Ward added. “As a physician, I’ve had to have these conversations with patients about whether to continue care or not, continue treatment or not, and they’re always very, very difficult conversations to have and difficult decisions to make. So I’m keeping him and his family in my thoughts and in my prayers and I hope everybody will.”

One prominent person who noticeably hasn’t made any mention of John McCain is President Donald Trump — perhaps because the two have long had a contentious relationship. Neither Trump nor the White House have reacted to the family’s announcement.

John McCain endorsed Trump for the 2016 presidential election but withdrew his support following the release of the now-infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which was heard Trump bragging about grabbing women’s genitals and getting away with it. McCain has since become one of the most outspoken Republican critics of Trump and his policies.

Trump has previously criticized the senator’s military record, saying in July 2015 that the retired Navy caption “is not a war hero” because he was taken as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. And although the president did express support for John McCain following word of his diagnosis last summer, Trump has repeatedly lambasted him for voting against repealing the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act in July 2017.

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