Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., says the best way Americans can honor Sen. John McCain’s legacy is by acknowledging that the pursuit of public service shouldn’t be about self-interest.
“By seeing the good in our opponents, by being quick to forgive, by realizing that there’s something more important than ourselves, to put service, you know, over and above our self-interest, as he often said and as he lived,” Flake said Sunday during an interview with ABC’s “This Week.” “I think that that’s how we honor him.”
Flake, who represented Arizona as the junior senator for the state with McCain, said the most significant lesson he learned from the 2008 Republican presidential nominee is the power of forgiveness.
“You know, his people talk about [how] he had a temper, he was passionate, that’s certainly the case,” continued Flake, who is retiring after the 2018 midterm elections. “But he would quickly forgive, and move on, and to see the good in his opponents, that is something that particularly these days we could use a lot more of. That’s a lesson that he taught everyone.”
McCain died on Saturday at the age of 81 after a yearlong fight with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
