‘The Ranch’ Star Ashton Kutcher Recalls Patriotic Encounter With Senator John McCain

Ashton Kutcher has weighed in on the passing of Sen. John McCain, showing his admiration for the public servant.

Kutcher currently stars in the Netflix original series The Ranch, which is considered a right-leaning sitcom by many. Kutcher himself is a self-described “fiscal conservative and social liberal,” as he stated in an interview with Bill Maher in 2009. It therefore makes sense that he would have so much respect for a figure like John McCain.

McCain passed away on Saturday afternoon after a long and hard-fought battle with brain cancer. The senator had dealt with the disease for over a year, and had surpassed every prediction for his own longevity. Kutcher posted three tweets to mark McCain’s passing.

“Sending love to the McCain family,” he wrote, a few hours after the senator’s death. “A hero has fallen.”

“[I] asked senator McCain how he stays motivated after all this time,” Kutcher added a few minutes later, “he told me, ‘it’s not active. As I drive to work, The day I see this capital building on the horizon and don’t feel inspired, is the day I will stop fighting for the principles for which she stands.’”

Finally, Kutcher tweeted later in the night that he and his family would mark McCain’s passing symbolically.

“The flag at the Kutcher household is moving to half staff,” he wrote.

McCain was 81 years old at the time of his passing. He was considered a “maverick” in the Republican party in his time, though in recent years he has been seen as the last vestiges of what the party used to stand for. McCain made no secret of his disagreements with President Donald Trump, and he was regarded as a steadying influence on the entire Republican party.

Still, the senator’s passing sparked a number of heated conversations on social media, including in the replies to Kutcher’s own tweets. Many fans shared the actor’s sentiments, though some felt that he was misrepresenting McCain. Some even sent back conspiracy theories about McCain, including one fanatical post about McCain’s time as prisoner of war.

Elsewhere, McCain was mourned by politicians, business owners, veterans and his own family. McCain’s daughter, Meghan, posted a long and heartfelt statement on his death on Twitter, hinting at her coping method going forward.

“In this loss, and in this sorrow, I take comfort in this: John McCain, hero of the republic and to his little girl, wakes today to something more glorious than anything on this earth,” she wrote. “Today the warrior enters his true and eternal life, greeted by those who have gone before him, rising to meet the Author of All Things:

‘The dream is ended: this is the morning.’”