Senator John McCain’s Daughter Meghan Issues Statement About ‘Beloved Father’

The View co-host Meghan McCain shared an emotional statement Saturday, minutes after the death of her father, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

McCain died Saturday at the age of 81. He was diagnosed with brain cancer last year and died just a day after his family announced he would no longer be treated for the disease.

“I was with my father at his end, as he was with me at my beginning,” Meghan wrote on Twitter. “In the thirty-three years we shared together, he raised me, taught me, corrected me, comforted me, encouraged me, and supported me in all things. He loved me, and I loved him. He taught me how to Life. His love and his care, ever present, always unfailing, took me from a girl to a woman – and he showed me what it is to be a man.”

Meghan, 33, often kept followers up to date on her father’s health. In March, she shared a photo from his Arizona home.

McCain served in the U.S. Senate from 1987 until his death, and previously represented Arizona in the House of Representatives from 1983 to 1987. He was a war hero, and survived five years as a prisoner of ear during the Vietnam War, suffering injuries that left him with lifelong disabilities.

In 2000, McCain ran for the Republican presidential nomination. In 2008, he ran again, winning the nomination before losing in the general election to President Barack Obama.

During his career, he gained a reputation as a “maverick” for making decisions against Republican party positions. In his last maverick move, McCain voted against a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

“He’s the last person who needs to be sick now because I so need him here, fighting for all the things that we believe in,” Meghan told Glamour earlier this month of her father. “I’m scared of America without him.”

Meghan admitted she thought about how the world would be different if her father became president.

“I have these moments where I wonder if my father could have become president if he’d had to do it [how] the Trumps did,” Meghan told Glamour. “It 100 percent wouldn’t have been worth it to me. I would not have signed on for it. And he wouldn’t have done it. If you have to win that way, it’s not worth winning, from my perspective. Because when you’re out of office, what does your life look like?”

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