inside the white house, there still appear to be such people. you knew john mccain well, probably battled with him at took place, but indisputably a person who sacrificed greatly for this country, loved the country. what was your reaction when you saw over in japan that they covered up the name on the ship, on the carrier that was named for him and his father and his grandfather, all honored servicemen? i thought that was a very poor show. i thought that was outrageous. should there have been resistance to that? the question is, you go back to the bush administration, are you going to fire the advance guy that put the mission accomplished banner up on the aircraft carrier? should have, honestly. but the military had to cooperate in that, right? i mean, those kind of things, i mean, i have seen look, with all these presidents, i
we have a bit with one of your interviews in 2017. i d like to play that for our viewers and get your thoughts. you had so many lives. you are the son of a distinguished naval family. you went to the naval academy. a bit of a wild child for a time. to say the least. a fighter pilot in vietnam. war hero, i would be the first to say that, spent that time in prison and came back. you have been in the senate, twice presidential candidate. both times lost. what do you want to be remembered for? he served his country. that s what i want to see. he served his country, hopefully with the word honorably on it. that s all. have you lived your life, john? oh, yeah. i loved my life. i can t tell you that i have never for 60 years now, i ve had a great honor of being involved in the arena.
all. the senate, which was known as a great debating society, they were rushing things through on party lines. and that s what prompted him to give the thumbs down, as it were on the health care bill. tom, did you get the sense in that interview that not too long ago again, you had with him, did you get the sense, or did he say, good-bye? this is my good-bye. yeah. we talked in those terms. you see the whole interview, he knew that it was coming to a close, his life and his public service. and i tried to do that, in a delicate way, to get him not just to acknowledge it. that was not the point. it was, what do you want the country to remember you for? and he said, i want to be remembered for my public service. john was a rogue. there were times in his career when people didn t know whether he could be a statesman or just
years there and knows john mccain well, as well as the statement, that i was sharing earlier from who also listed his love of john mccain. andy card, who served as chief of staff for president george w. bush. on this day, and you heard tom, as you know, so eloquent as always, describing what the country has lost today. john mccain was more than a patriot, more than a war hero, more than a senator. he invited people to be part of government. he s been steadfast for democracy. he chaired the international republican institute for a long time and gave a lot to spreading
and yeah, i just have never known anybody like him. there will never be another person like john mccain. he he is just a unique guy. and yeah, evers a great senator but boy, you just you wanted to be around him. he could show you the way. i have to say in some respects, even though we were peers, even though we worked together, i really wanted john s approval for things that i did. i don t really search for approval from many people. and particularly people in politics. but with john are, i always wanted him to say, good be job, johnny. he used to call me johnny. proud of you. i remember whether he voted against that health carrie peel, you was able to get him on phone and i told him, i said, john, you ve always been a hero of mine. and now more than ever.