John McCain, who died on Aug. 25, spent more than five years as a prisoner of war and more than three decades in the U.S. Senate representing Arizona, earning a reputation as a maverick who did not always follow the Republican Party line.
Following are some facts about McCain.
- He was an unruly and even combative student at his Washington-area boarding school. As the son and grandson of four-star Navy admirals, McCain followed in their footsteps by attending the U.S. Naval Academy, where he continued to rebel against regulations and graduated near the bottom of his class.
- McCain’s plane was shot down during a combat mission over Vietnam in 1967. He spent 5-1/2 years in captivity, including two years in solitary confinement, and was subjected to frequent beatings and torture that left a permanent disability. In the Senate, he was a critic of harsh interrogation techniques such as “waterboarding” or simulated drowning of terrorism suspects.
- Among the military medals McCain earned were three Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, two Legion of Merit awards, a Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
- McCain was working for an Arizona beer distributor – the father of his second wife, Cindy – when he entered politics. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982 and won the first of six Senate terms in 1986.
- McCain was seen as a maverick in his campaign for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination when he gave then-Texas Governor George W. Bush a scare by decisively winning the first of the state nominating contests. Later he fared poorly in the “Super Tuesday” nominating races and eventually conceded to Bush after a bitter campaign.
- After winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, McCain lost the popular vote to Democrat Barack Obama, 53 percent to 46 percent.
- In Congress, McCain was a pro-business conservative, free-market advocate and abortion foe but he voted against the Republican majority on several high-profile bills. After being cleared in the 1980s in the “Keating Five” campaign donation scandal, he made election campaign finance reform a signature concern.
- In 2017 doctors found an aggressive brain tumor during surgery in Arizona to remove a blood clot behind McCain’s left eye. He returned to Washington less than two weeks later and went against his party’s wishes by casting a dramatic late-night vote that doomed Republicans’ efforts to repeal Obama’s healthcare plan. Afterward, McCain spent much of his time in Arizona undergoing treatment and resting.
- McCain has been a regular critic of Trump’s presidency.