The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate on Monday began what will be a week of remembrance of Sen. John McCain and praised him as a lawmaker who fought against the polarization of politics.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., praised the Arizona Republican, who died Saturday at 81 of brain cancer, in a long floor speech that recalled their final meeting in Sedona, Ariz., where they replayed memorable moments in their Senate careers.
“John and I stood shoulder to shoulder on some of the most important issues to each of us, and we also disagreed entirely on huge subjects that helped define each of our careers,” McConnell said. “John treated every issue with the intensity and seriousness that the legislative process deserves. He would fight like mad to bring the country closer to his vision of the common good, but when the day’s disputes were over, that very same man was one of our most powerful reminders that so much more divides us, that we should be able to differ completely on policy and stay united in love of our country.”
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is leading the charge to rename the Russell Senate Office Building after McCain, said he developed “a real tight and lasting friendship” with McCain after working together on immigration reform.
Schumer said the Senate should heed the advice delivered by McCain during his final Senate floor speech, in which he implored the Senate to return to the bipartisanship and regular order that was once far more prevalent in the upper chamber.
“We can honor him by trying to carry out the principles he lived by,” Schumer said. We can try, as he did, to put country before party. We can try, as he always did, to speak truth to power. And we can try, as he summoned us to try, to restore the Senate to its rightful place in our national political life.”
McCain, who at the time of his death was chairman of the Armed Services Committee, will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda on Friday.
His desk in the Senate has been draped in a black velvet cloth and is topped with a small bouquet of white roses in a crystal vase.
McCain, in his final working days in the Senate, turned against the GOP effort to repeal Obamacare, a longtime goal of the party. He said he wanted the two parties to first work together on a replacement.
His now infamous “thumbs down” on the Senate floor marked the end of the Republican effort to fully repeal the healthcare law.
