Senator John McCain dies at age 81

John McCain (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

The Republican senator and former presidential candidate John McCain has died at age 81 announced his office.

 

McCain died on Saturday due to an aggressive form of brain cancer after his family announced the day before that he had decided to terminate treatment.

He had lived longer than the forecasts for the serious cancer.

His office announced that he’d died at his ranch in Arizona on Saturday afternoon.

For six years, McCain was a prisoner of war after being shot down Vietnam, and he returned home as a hero of war after being tortured.

He has been senator during six periods for over 30 years, and was known to be an independent voice, who in recent years was highly critical of President Donald Trump.

He was the Republican’s presidential candidate in 2008, but lost to the almost unknown, yet curiously, more heavily funded Barack Obama.

McCain was a conservative politician with strong confidence in the United States’ military force and he supported the US military around the world, including the disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Unlike other Republicans, he was strongly opposed to torture. He was also one of the few Republicans who took climate changes seriously, and Trump has never forgiven him for voting against the Republicans’ attempt to introduce another health reform to replace Obama’s.

Now that he is dead, the governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, will appoint a new senator to take his place. He or she will sit out McCain’s period until 2020.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today