Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. will brief the media on Tuesday, Aug. 28, at 10 a.m. EDT, in the Pentagon Briefing Room (2E973). DAILY SCHEDULE: Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. brief the media at 10 a.m. EDT in the Pentagon Briefing Room (2E973). Both U.S. and foreign journalists without a Pentagon building pass must be pre-registered in the new Pentagon Visitor Management System to attend this briefing; plan on being escorted from the River Entrance Pedestrian Bridge or the Pentagon Metro Entrance Facility only. Please arrive no later than 45 minutes before the briefing; have proof of affiliation and photo identification. Please call 703-697-5131 for any questions and escort into the building. The briefing will also be streamed live on www.defense.gov/live. Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis hosts an enhanced honor cordon welcoming Minister of Defense Ryamizard Ryacudu of Indonesia, to the Pentagon at 2:30 p.m. EDT on the steps of the River Entrance. All journalists desiring to cover the cordon must obtain a wristband from security screening. Journalists without a Pentagon facility access card must go through security screening at the base of the River Entrance Pedestrian Bridge, and will be escorted to the cordon from there. Security screening will begin at approximately 1:45 p.m. EDT; have proof of affiliation and two forms of photo identification. Journalists with a Pentagon facility access card, and whom have entered the building prior to 1:30 p.m. EDT, may go through security screening at the River Entrance to obtain their wristband. All journalists wishing to cover the honor cordon, including those with a Pentagon facility access card, must be in place no later than 2:15 p.m. EDT. Once security screening has been initiated at the base of the bridge, all journalists entering the building via the bridge for any reason, including those with a Pen Obama on McCain: We are all in his debt WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 1: Cindy McCain looks on as a joint military service casket team carries the casket of the late Senator John McCain following his funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral, September 1, 2018 in Washington, DC. Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered eulogies for McCain in front of the 2,500 invited guests. McCain will be buried on Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) MAY 29, 2017: CANBERRA, ACT - (EUROPE AND AUSTRALASIA OUT) U.S. Senator John McCain looks at the Roll of Honour after the Last Post Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. (Photo by Kym Smith/Newspix/Getty Images) Programming note: For more on the late senator’s legacy, tune in to “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls” Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (CNN) — Whenever America was in a fight during his long lifetime, John McCain was in the thick of it. McCain, who has died at the age of 81, was a naval bomber pilot, prisoner of war, conservative maverick, giant of the Senate, twice-defeated presidential candidate and an abrasive American hero with a twinkle in his eye. The Arizonan warrior politician, who survived plane crashes, several bouts of skin cancer and brushes with political oblivion, often seemed to be perpetually waging a race against time and his own mortality while striving to ensure that his five-and-a-half years as a Vietnam prisoner of war did not stand as the defining experience of his life. He spent his last few months out of the public eye in his adopted home state of Arizona, reflecting on the meaning of his life and accepting visits from a stream of friends and old political combatants. In a memoir published in May, McCain wrote that he hated to leave the world, but had no complaints. “It’s been quite a ride. I’ve known great passions, seen amazing wonders, fought in a war, and helped make peace,” McCain wrote. “I’ve lived very well and I’ve been deprived of all comforts. I’ve been as lonely as a person can be and I’ve enjoyed the company of heroes. I’ve suffered the deepest despair and experienced the highest exultation. “I made a small place for myself in the story of America and the history of my times.” McCain had not been in Washington since December, leaving a vacuum in the corridors of the Senate and the television news studios he roamed for decades. In recent months, he was not completely quiet, however, blasting President Donald Trump in a series of tweets and statements that showed that while he was ailing he had lost none of his appetite for the political fight. The Arizona Senator repeatedly made clear that he saw Trump and his America First ideology as a departure from the values and traditions of global leadership that he saw epitomized in the United States. McCain had been planning his funeral services over the last year and his family made clear that Trump is not invited, a position that has not changed, two family friends said Saturday. Former rivals and Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were asked to give eulogies, people close to both former presidents and a source close to the senator told CNN earlier this year. McCain will lie in state in the Arizona Capitol on Wednesday, the day McCain *would have* turned 82 years old, according to the state’s governor, Doug Ducey. After that service, he will be taken to Washington on Thursday, and will lie in state in the Capitol on Friday, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office. McCain will have a national memorial service at Washington’s National Cathedral on Saturday, according to the family statement. After that, he will be taken to Annapolis, Maryland, where he will be laid to rest. McCain’s two losing presidential campaigns meant he fell short of the ultimate political prize, one his story once seemed to promise after he came home from Vietnam and caught the political bug. In the end, he became a scourge of presidents rather than President himself. John McCain’s life in pictures At the time of his death, he was largely an anomaly in his own party – as one of the few Republicans willing to criticize Trump and a believer in the idealized “shining city on a hill” brand of conservatism exemplified by his hero Ronald Reagan that has been dislodged by the nativist and polarizing instincts of the current President. He was also a throwback to an earlier era when political leaders, without betraying their own ideology, were willing on occasion to cross partisan lines. In a Washington career that spanned 40 years, first as a Navy Senate liaison, then as a member of the House and finally as the occupant of the Senate seat he took over from Barry Goldwater, McCain was a conservative and a foreign policy hawk. But he was not always a reliable Republican vote, and sometimes in a career that stretched into a sixth Senate term, he confounded party leaders with his maverick stands. He defied party orthodoxy to embrace campaign finance reform, and excoriated President George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, for not taking enough troops to Iraq. After Obama ended McCain’s second White House race in 2008, the senator blasted the new President’s troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, causing critics to carp that he had not yet reconciled the bitterness he felt in defeat. McCain had supported the invasion of Iraq carried out by the Bush administration in 2003, but admitted in his memoir “The Restless Wave” that the rationale, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction was wrong. “The war, with its cost in lives and treasure and security, can’t be judged as anything other than a mistake, a very serious one, and I have to accept my share of the blame for it,” he wrote. More recently, as death approached, he became a strident critic of Trump, who had once said he didn’t consider the Arizona senator a war hero because he had been captured.<doc-sep>“We’re getting nothing done, my friends. We’re getting nothing done.” It was a few days before the historic Obamacare repeal vote, and Republicans desperately needed John McCain. “It was a dramatic and consequential return for John McCain to the Senate floor.” “What a dramatic morning this is turning out to be, with John McCain making that surprise return to Washington.” “And McCain’s vote is going to give leadership a lot more breathing room.” But the maverick of the Senate had just been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and he was playing hard to get. “We’ve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues, because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle.” But would he vote with his party, or would he defect? “I will not vote for this bill as it is today.” This was the kind of moment that John McCain lives for. He is going to be the deciding vote, and he’s got control of a major piece of legislation in his hand. “You heard John McCain. A really historic moment. Trying to set a new tone when it comes to fixing our health care system.” When you go against the grain in Washington, you get a lot of attention. “Shutting down the government injured the people of my state. Why? Why would we want to do that?” John McCain had a big ego, and he liked the attention. But also, I do think that the maverick aspect to McCain was real. He saw a lot of the things that went on in Washington as semi-idiotic, or corrupt. “I think the Congress of the United States — both Republicans and Democrats — should be ashamed of themselves. These may be worthy projects. They may be. Generally they aren’t. How many more lawmakers, staffers, government officials, and contractors have to go to jail before we actually fix this process?” He liked challenging authority. It may be part of that is just growing up in a military family and having all that military experience, where you’re subject to so much authority. “I have trouble with this. More than two-syllable words —” In the political phase of his life, he was willing to step up, take a chance, and shake up the system. “Eleven million people live in the shadows, and they live here in de facto amnesty, and, by God, they are being exploited every single day.” Of course, he switched back and forth when it suited his politics. “We will secure the borders first when I am president of the United States. I am proud that Republicans are the party of lower taxes. I cannot in good conscience vote in favor of tax cuts.” There have been so many John McCains over the years. He came to Congress as this exalted war hero who’d already had a national reputation because of his time as a P.O.W. in Vietnam. McCain was shot down, held for years in terrible conditions in the Hanoi Hilton. He had a high profile because of his father. “The commander in chief of our Pacific forces, Admiral John S. McCain Jr.” “As you know, we are living in a troubled world —” They knew that they had something of a celebrity prisoner there. He was tortured, subjected to really unthinkable experiences. He resisted and resisted, but ultimately did make a confession. That really haunted him through the rest of his life. He felt that he had caved and betrayed his country. When he returned from Vietnam, to much acclaim, he was an ambitious guy, and he quickly turned to politics. “John McCain, a name Arizonans are talking about.” He ran for the House. Came in as a pretty conventional conservative — somebody who wanted to get on board the Reagan Revolution. “Speaker, like a poor fellow who brought his horse to water but could not make it drink, Walter Mondale proposes to throw more tax money at the deficit with little chance of making it shrink.” But there was a watershed moment coming for John McCain — “— a major congressional scandal —” The Keating Five Scandal. “Charles Keating, a millionaire banker who has come to embody the savings and loan scandal —” A group of senators — a bipartisan group — had interceded on behalf of a big businessman, and they tried to help him out of a regulatory problem. It was a big scandal at the moment, because the S&L crisis was huge back then. “Do you swear under oath to this committee you were unaware of that at the time?” McCain was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing. “But I understand why the committee made the arrangements they did.” He thought it be besmirched his honor, which is probably the most important thing to John McCain besides his family, is his honor. This was a searing experience for McCain, and it really helped shape his later image as a maverick, because he immediately became someone, I think, who wanted to shake up the system and rein in the influence of money and politics. “There’s too much money washing around, and this money makes good people do bad things, and bad people do worse things.” John McCain was ready to do that. His party really wasn’t. They liked the campaign system the way it was, particularly Mitch McConnell. “To effectively discuss issues in this country, one must have access to money.” He was the leading foe of John McCain. “Who do you want to be the next president of these United States? McCain! That’s right.” So McCain had presidential ambitions. 2000 seemed like a good opportunity for him. This was the year of the famous Straight Talk Express. He was really letting it hang out in a lot of ways. “If I were a tree, I would be a —” “If I were a tree, I would be a root. What does that mean? I’d be glad to tell you —” But he ran into a real buzzsaw with the Bush family and Karl Rove. “Let me finish. Let me finish.” “All right, then.” The Bush campaign did some really tough negative advertising. “McCain’s campaign is crawling with lobbyists.” “His conservative hometown paper warns — It’s time the rest of the nation learns about the McCain we know.” McCain was stung when he came back to the Senate, you could tell. “Gentlemen —” “Senator John McCain, the Republican, and Senator Barack Obama, the —” In 2008, this was really John McCain’s last opportunity. He took the nomination, but he was really in trouble from the start. Obama, the celebrity candidate, the economic collapse — “The fundamentals of our economy are strong —” — picking Sarah Palin as his running mate. “This is absolutely overwhelming.” People really questioned John McCain’s judgment on that. Even at the end, McCain was still fighting the leaders of his party. “Yesterday, I received a call from President Putin of Russia —” Being cozy with the Russians, pulling back in Asia. To John McCain, this was anathema. He wouldn’t mention Trump by name, but he would talk about failures of American foreign policy and the conduct. “— refuse the obligations of international leadership for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.” This was amped up more after the diagnosis of brain cancer. I think that was also part of his vote on the health care repeal. At the climactic moment, he walked out onto the floor, turned thumbs down, and killed the repeal effort. It was one of his last big acts as a U.S. senator. “Making news in the 11th hour —” “The resistance to President Trump had its biggest victory yet.” “This is a major defeat.” “You could look at this one moment like a Renaissance painting.” “It was unbelievable.” McCain wasn’t going to go quietly.<doc-sep>Sen. John McCain, an admiral’s son whose rebellious streak nearly got him expelled from Annapolis but helped him survive North Vietnamese torture and rise to the top of the Republican Party, has died. He was 81 years old. Mr. McCain died Saturday at his home in Sedona, Ariz., surrounded by his wife, Cindy, and their family, his office said. The cause was a brain tumor known as a glioblastoma, which was diagnosed in July 2017. On Friday, his family said Mr. McCain had decided to discontinue medical treatment, which had included chemotherapy and radiation that left him weakened as he battled for his life at home in Arizona. He hadn’t been in the Senate since Dec. 7, when he cast his last vote. Related McCain Remembered as Principled Leader Mr. McCain catapulted to national prominence with his 2000 bid for the GOP presidential nomination, when his willingness to challenge ideas held sacred by his party helped him catch fire among Republicans in a long-shot bid against George W. Bush. Mr. McCain rode in a bus dubbed “the Straight Talk Express,” taking hours of questions from a rotating group of reporters. He won the New Hampshire primary before a loss in South Carolina from which he never truly recovered. He wrote afterward that despite the disappointment, the campaign was “a hell of a lot of fun.” Eight years later, Mr. McCain won the Republican presidential nomination, but lost to Barack Obama, then a first-term senator. He moved past his disappointment to carve out a reputation as a leading internationalist who warned that Russia posed a threat to the post-Cold War order—one of the Senate’s most ardent military hawks and one of the few willing to vocally challenge President Donald Trump. Sen. McCain and his wife, Cindy, smiled at the end of a town hall meeting with voters in New Hampshire on Jan. 30, 2000. During his bid that year for the GOP presidential nomination, Mr. McCain’s penchant for independence catapulted him to the center of national attention. Photo: Stephan Savoia/Associated Press Mr. McCain called Mr. Trump “poorly informed” and “impulsive,” and in a thinly veiled shot at Mr. Trump in 2017 warned about “half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.” Mr. Trump said he liked “people who weren’t captured,” and rarely missed an opportunity to criticize Mr. McCain for voting against a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, even when the senator was battling an aggressive cancer. Mr. McCain lived a life that was the stuff of legend. The son of a Navy admiral and the grandson of another, John Sidney McCain III was born on Aug. 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone to a family that had fought in every American war since the Revolution. The background gave him a comfort level around senators and congressmen, whom his parents entertained at their home, and a personal connection to the headiest moments in American history. He could refer to George Washington knowing that one of his forebears had served on the staff of the American general and future first president, and point to a picture of Japan’s World War II surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri and identify his grandfather as one of the ceremony’s spectators. As a teenager, Mr. McCain felt burdened by that heritage and rebelled against its expectations. He graduated fifth from the bottom of his Naval Academy class after showing a disregard for the dress code, a messy room and a habit of waiting until the moment before exams to study. In advanced flight training, he crashed a plane into Corpus Christi Bay, coming to when the plane settled on the bottom. Mr. McCain once flew low enough that he took out some power lines over the Iberian peninsula. The story was repeated so often that its tellers eventually would claim that Mr. McCain had single-handedly turned out the lights in Spain. Mr. McCain’s identity as a patriot and hero was forged in the Vietnam War. While attempting to bomb a power plant in North Vietnam in 1967, Mr. McCain was shot down by a surface-to-air missile and broke both arms and his right knee. He was captured and spent 5½ years in prison, including one that American POWs dubbed the Hanoi Hilton and other called the Plantation, where he survived bouts of dysentery, solitary confinement and torture. He spent 5½ years in prison. In 1973, Mr. McCain waited with other prisoners of war to board a bus at an airport in Vietnam upon being released. It was an experience that would turn him into an ardent opponent of torture. Photo: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration It was an experience that would turn him into an ardent opponent of torture—and one with nearly unique moral stature in Congress. He battled the Bush administration over its use of waterboarding—a technique that simulates drowning—and after Mr. Trump claimed on the campaign trail that torture works, Mr. McCain warned against bringing it back. Mr. McCain was the author of a measure that became known as the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of any U.S. government prisoner, including at Guantanamo Bay. Mr. McCain contemplated suicide while captive in Vietnam, he wrote. The pain of the torture drove him to make a false confession that filled him with shame. But he also showed moral fortitude. As his father was elevated to commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific theater, Mr. McCain’s captors tried to coax the prisoner they called the “Crown Prince” into early release. Mr. McCain refused, enduring days of beatings, out of concern that cutting in line ahead of POWs who had been in prison for longer would hand Vietnam a propaganda victory and harm morale, according to his 1999 book “Faith of My Fathers.” Mr. McCain was freed in 1973 after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. Mr. McCain returned home a changed man and to changed circumstances. His wife, Carol, had been badly injured in a car accident and walked with difficulty. The marriage collapsed. She said it reflected Mr. McCain turning 40 and wanting to be 25. He repeatedly expressed remorse for his behavior. By 1980, he had married Cindy Lou Hensley, nearly 18 years his junior and from a wealthy Arizona family. They had met on a stopover trip in Hawaii when he was working as the Navy’s liaison to the Senate. The Senate liaison job would prove a boon for Mr. McCain. He developed an easy rapport with Republican Sen. John Tower, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Republican Sen. William Cohen of Maine. When Mr. McCain moved to Arizona, his new wife’s home, he took a job as a public-relations executive at her father’s beer distributorship. But Mr. McCain wanted a career in politics. He ran for a House seat, and won, after Mr. Tower broke his own rules never to make an endorsement in a competitive GOP primary. By 1986, Mr. McCain was campaigning for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Barry Goldwater, the founder of the conservative wing of the Republican party. Mr. McCain won that race, too. John McCain: Rebel With a Cause With his tenacious spirit, John McCain made an indelible mark. From the Naval Academy, through a Hanoi prison, to the U.S. Senate, his life was the stuff of legend. “It’s been quite a ride,” Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) wrote in his memoir. “I’ve known great passions, seen amazing wonders, fought in a war, and helped make a peace. I made a small place for myself in the story of America and the history of my times.” In 2008, he became the Republican presidential nominee. Gerald Herbert/Associated Press 1 of 25 • • • • • 1 of 25 Show Caption “It’s been quite a ride,” Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) wrote in his memoir. “I’ve known great passions, seen amazing wonders, fought in a war, and helped make a peace. I made a small place for myself in the story of America and the history of my times.” In 2008, he became the Republican presidential nominee. Gerald Herbert/Associated Press<doc-sep>
He was diagnosed with a virulent former of brain cancer in July 2017, a week after d McCain survived nearly six years as a POW in North Vietnam, succeeded Barry Goldwater in the Senate and lost a White House bid to Barack Obama. Sen. John McCain, who survived nearly six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, succeeded Barry Goldwater to represent Arizona in the Senate, lost a White House bid to freshman Sen. Barack Obama and became an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, has died. He was 81. McCain died Saturday. His office released this statement: 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. At his death, he had served the United States of America faithfully for sixty years. Later, Cindy McCain took to Twitter to honor her husband. "My heart is broken. I am so lucky to have lived the adventure of loving this incredible man for 38 years," she tweeted. "He passed the way he lived, on his own terms, surrounded by the people he loved, in the the place he loved best." Daughter Meghan McCain posted a tribute to her father on social media, as well. Meghan McCain tweet McCain was diagnosed in July 2017 with glioblastoma, a virulent brain cancer, a week after doctors removed a blood clot from above his left eye. He underwent surgery for an intestinal infection in April 2018. On Aug. 24, five days before his 82nd birthday, his family announced that "with his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment. "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," the family said. "God bless and thank you all." During his 3½-decade congressional career, McCain was a conservative who rejected Republican orthodoxy, earning him the label "maverick." He backed campaign finance reform to limit corporate donations to candidates and was a leader in efforts to normalize relations with Vietnam. He voted against a bill to make Martin Luther King's birthday a federal holiday but backed legislation to support his Native American constituents, including the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which opened the way for tribal casino development. And he was a thorn in the side of fellow Republican Trump, who expressed his "deepest sympathies to McCain's family about his passing. Trump tweet: My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you! Ever the fighter, McCain had promised to return to Washington soon after the cancer diagnosis. McCain tweet His treatment forced him to miss the Senate vote on the GOP tax overhaul in December 2017. But nearly two weeks after surgery in July 2017, he marched into the Senate to a standing ovation and cast the deciding vote that killed the Senate GOP's "skinny" bill to repeal Obamacare — at 1:29 a.m. He joined with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine and 48 Democrats. "I thought it was the right thing to do," he said afterward. Tweet "From the beginning, I have believed that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with a solution that increases competition, lowers costs, and improves care for the American people. The so-called 'skinny repeal' amendment the Senate voted on today would not accomplish those goals," McCain said in a statement. "We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve." Sen. John McCain makes his way to a meeting on the tax bill in the Senate, Dec. 1, 2017. Bill O'Leary | The Washington Post | Getty Images Sen. John McCain announces his opposition to the "skinny repeal" of Obamacare, July 27, 2017. Getty Images Two runs for the White House McCain's Senate tenure began in 1987, when he succeeded the retiring Goldwater, the GOP's 1964 presidential candidate. In McCain's 2008 run for the White House, he made a "Hail Mary" pick for a running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in hopes that a woman on the ticket would energize his flagging campaign. Obama won by 53 to 46 percent. McCain had considered independent Sen. Joe Lieberman as his running mate.