Sen. John McCain: Doctors gave me 'poor prognosis' on cancer fight
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On Friday, Arizona Senator John McCain, who delivered the final blow to the previous attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, said he will vote no against his party’s current healthcare plan.
USA TODAY
PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain gave new insight into his grim struggle with an aggressive form of brain cancer in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
“They said that it’s very serious, that the prognosis is very, very serious,” the 81-year-old McCain, R-Ariz., said during the segment titled “The Fighter.”
“Some say 3%, some say 14%. You know, it’s a very poor prognosis,” he continued. “So I just said, ‘I understand. Now we’re gonna do what we can, get the best doctors we can find and do the best we can.’
“And, at the same time, celebrate, with gratitude, a life well-lived.”
McCain, a former naval aviator who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 and held as a prisoner of war until 1973, also revealed that he wants his memorial service held at his alma mater in Annapolis, Md.
“I want, when I leave, that the ceremony is at the Naval Academy,” he said. “And we just have a couple of people that stand up and say, ‘This guy, he served his country.'”
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McCain on July 14 underwent an emergency craniotomy to address a blood clot that was later revealed to be associated with glioblastoma, a deadly kind of brain cancer.
He returned to Capitol Hill after Labor Day and is keeping his regular Senate work schedule as he continues chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
“I am more energetic, and more engaged, as a result of this because I know that I’ve got to do everything I can to serve this country while I can,” said McCain, the chairman of the influential Senate Armed Services Committee and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.
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Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, followed by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., center, and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., greets Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 25, 2017, as Sen. McCain returned to Capitol Hill to vote in the health bill.Â
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Since the diagnosis, McCain on July 28 voted to kill the GOP’s “skinny repeal” legislation, part of Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” On Friday, McCain announced that he also intends to vote against the latest GOP health-care bill authored by Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.Â
The votes have put further strain on his already notoriously bad relationship with President Trump, who has made undoing Obamacare a top priority.
In the TV interview, McCain said that Trump still has never apologized to him for ridiculing in 2015 McCain’s P.O.W. experience. But McCain said he has moved on and that none of his votes are intended to get back at Trump for the insult.
McCain added that he’d be happy to have a conversation with Trump but acknowledged that they each had a “different upbringing” and “different life experiences.”
McCain’s father and grandfather were U.S. Navy admirals.
“He is in the business of making money and he has been successful both on television as well as Miss America and others,” McCain said of Trump. “I was raised in a military family. I was raised in the concept and belief that duty, honor, country is the lodestar for the behavior that we have to exhibit every single day.”
McCain also detailed to 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl how his doctors informed him of the life-threatening health issue, which was discovered during a routine health exam.
It was a Friday, and McCain was about two-thirds of the way to his cabin near Sedona when he got a call from his doctor saying he had to turn around and come back for the surgery.
“And I said, ‘Hey, today is Friday. I’ll just come in on Monday.’ And she said, ‘No, you have to come now. It’s very serious,'” McCain recalled.
McCain also suggested that his doctors initially danced around the diagnosis.
“I kept saying to them, ‘Tell it to me straight,'” he said. “… I said, ‘I can take it. Just tell me.'”
McCain was asked whether he has felt “panic” since the diagnosis. He said he had not.
“I have feelings, sometimes of fear, of what happens,” McCain said. “But as soon as I get that, I say, ‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You’ve been around a long time, old man. You’ve had a great life. You’ve had a great experience.'”Â
Follow Dan Nowicki on Twitter:Â @dannowicki
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