Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), “who has been battling brain cancer for more than a year, will no longer be treated for his condition, his family announced on Friday, a sign that the Republican war hero is most likely entering his final days,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. McCain’s family has gathered in Arizona, and people close to him say his death is imminent.”
President Trump “signed defense legislation named for Sen. John McCain in a splashy ceremony at a New York Army base without once mentioning the ailing Arizona Republican’s name,” Bloomberg reports.
“McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, hasn’t been back to Washington in months, and his colleagues titled the bill in his honor.”
“I talk to him all the time, and he checks in on me all the time.”
— Meghan McCain, quoted by Glamour, on how former Vice President Joe Biden has been supportive during Sen. John McCain’s illness.
“A day after a December 2017 announcement that Sen. John McCain had been hospitalized for the ‘normal effects’ of cancer treatment, Arizona’s Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) was lobbying for McCain’s Senate seat,” the Arizona Republic reports.
“Gosar’s chief of staff, Thomas Van Flein, conveyed the northern Arizona congressman’s interest in replacing McCain to Gov. Doug Ducey… The brief text exchange began at 11:56 a.m. Dec. 14, less than 24 hours after news reports of McCain’s hospitalization in Bethesda, Maryland.”
Megan McCain made her feelings clear about the way President Trump repeatedly attacks her father, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Time reports.
Said McCain: “Trump’s comments are never going to be OK with me, especially at this moment in my life. I’m never going to forgive it. I’m never going to move on from it.”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) blasted President Trump’s decision to halt military exercises with South Korea as part of the ongoing negotiations with North Korea, The Hill reports.
Said McCain: “Suspending U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises is a mistake. Making unnecessary and unreciprocated concessions is not in our interests—and it is a bad negotiating tactic.”
McCain also knocked Trump for calling the war games with South Korea “provocative” saying the president was “parroting Chinese and North Korean propaganda.”
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) quietly met with Sen. John McCain (R) and his wife, Cindy, at the couple’s home outside Sedona, Arizona, The Hill reports.
“The meeting, which was not on the governor’s official schedule, comes amid speculation over whom the Republican governor would appoint to fill the Senate seat should the ailing 81-year-old senior lawmaker and Vietnam War hero unexpectedly leave office. Under state law, Wednesday marks the final day that a vacancy for McCain’s seat could trigger a special election before 2020. After Wednesday, Ducey will have the power to appoint someone to the Senate seat if it did become open.”
Arizona Republic: “In recent days, various media outlets have published reports about whom Ducey might appoint, speculating that the senator’s wife, Cindy, is among those under consideration.”
First Read: “A focus group of six Trump voters and six Clinton voters outside of Milwaukee on Tuesday night laid bare the deep rifts between Trump’s backers and his detractors with his voters steadfastly repeating the president’s claims that the investigation is a political ‘witch hunt.'”
“Perhaps the most vivid illustration of Trump’s impact on partisanship, though, came not in the discussion about Mueller but in a routine word-association exercise. Asked to think of a single word or phrase to describe Arizona Sen. John McCain, who is currently gravely ill with cancer, the group’s Clinton voters called the onetime POW ‘strong’ and ‘a hero.’ But those who most vociferously supported Trump, who has famously clashed with McCain, referred to the 2008 GOP presidential nominee as ‘petty,’ ‘old,’ ‘a turncoat.'”
“For six days straight, Republican senators had publicly rallied to the defense of their longtime colleague battling cancer, Sen. John McCain, who was the target of a crass joke by a White House aide calling him irrelevant because ‘he’s dying anyway,” the Washington Post reports.
“But in a long luncheon Tuesday with President Trump himself, none of the Senate Republicans in attendance brought up the McCain smear — or the steadfast refusal by Trump and the White House to apologize for it.”
“Senate Republicans are openly seething over the White House’s treatment of John McCain, casting a pall over the party ahead of a rare lunch with President Trump the caucus is hosting on Tuesday,” Politico reports.
“The White House’s refusal to apologize for an aide joking about the Arizona senator’s failing health is threatening to undermine what should be a feel-good moment for the caucus.”
The Hill: “A White House official mocked Sen. John McCain’s brain cancer diagnosis at an internal meeting on Thursday, a day after the Arizona Republican announced his opposition to President Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel. Special assistant Kelly Sadler made the derisive comments during a closed-door White House meeting of about two-dozen communications staffers on Thursday morning.”
Said Sadler: “It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.”
Playbook: “What must be going through your head to dismiss a man who is dying? In any other White House, this person would be fired.”
In his new book, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) confirms that he gave a controversial dossier about President Trump to former FBI chief James Comey, the Daily Beast reports.
Writes McCain: “I agreed to receive a copy of what is now referred to as ‘the dossier.’ I reviewed its contents. The allegations were disturbing, but I had no idea which if any were true. I could not independently verify any of it, and so I did what any American who cares about our nation’s security should have done.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) should reconsider his wish that President Trump not attend McCain’s funeral, Politico reports.
Said Hatch: “I think it’s ridiculous… Well, he’s the president of the United States and he’s a very good man.”
New York Times: “No one is saying goodbye, not explicitly. The son and grandson of admirals, Mr. McCain ‘doesn’t like overt sentimentality,’ as his friend and former chief of staff Grant Woods put it. But his visitors are telling him they love him, how much he has meant to them — and together they are taking care of unfinished business.”
“The Republican senator encouraged the former Democratic vice president to ‘not walk away’ from politics, as Mr. Biden put it before refusing to discuss a possible 2020 presidential run. Mr. McCain is using a new book and documentary to reveal his regret about not selecting former Senator Joseph I. Lieberman as his running mate in 2008. His intimates have informed the White House that their current plan for his funeral is for Vice President Mike Pence to attend the service to be held in Washington’s National Cathedral but not President Trump, with whom Mr. McCain has had a rocky relationship.”
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here. Maybe I’ll have another five years. Maybe with the advances in oncology, they’ll find new treatments for my cancer that will extend my life. Maybe I’ll be gone before you hear this. My predicament is, well, rather unpredictable.”
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in the audio recording of his new book, The Restless Wave.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), “who is battling brain cancer in his home state of Arizona, says in his new book that his current term is his last,” CNN reports.
Said McCain: “This is my last term. If I hadn’t admitted that to myself before this summer, a stage 4 cancer diagnosis acts as ungentle persuasion. I’m freer than colleagues who will face the voters again. I can speak my mind without fearing the consequences much. And I can vote my conscience without worry.”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) asked his son-in-law, Ben Domenech, over the weekend to “take care of” his daughter as he continues to receive treatment for complications connected to his brain cancer, Roll Call reports.
Tweeted Domenech: “John hugged me tonight. He asked me to take care of Meghan. I said I would.”
He deleted the tweet shortly after.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.