John McCain

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John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and military officer, who served as a United States senator from Arizona from January 1987 until his death in 2018.

He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and was the Republican nominee for president of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama. McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958 and received a commission in the United States Navy.

He became a naval aviator and flew ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers.

During the Vietnam War, he almost died in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire.

While on a bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder over Hanoi in October 1967, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese.

He was a prisoner of war until 1973.

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(1936-1981) s start in life and military service (1936–1981)

John Sidney McCain III was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, to naval officer John S. McCain Jr. and Roberta (Wright) McCain. Sandy, his older sister, and Joe, his younger brother. At that time, the Panama Canal was under US influence.

McCain's family tree includes both Scotch-Irish and English ancestors. High Rock Farm, a plantation in Rockingham County, North Carolina, was owned by his great-great-grandparents. Both his father and his paternal grandfather, John S. McCain Sr., were both Naval Academy graduates and in the United States Navy, they became four-star admirals. As he earned various naval positions in the United States and in the Pacific, the McCain family migrated with their father.

As a result, the younger McCain attended a total of about 20 schools. McCain attended Episcopal High School, a private preparatory boarding school in Alexandria, in 1951. He excelled at wrestling and graduated in 1954. He referred to himself as an Episcopalian as early as June 2007, after which he said he came to identify as a Baptist.

McCain, a father and grandfather, joined the United States Naval Academy, where he was a mentor and informal mentor for several of his classmates, as well as being on the victims of bullying. He also competed as a lightweight boxer. "John Wayne" is named "for his demeanor and fame with the opposite sex." McCain did well in academic subjects that interested him, such as literature and history, but he only did enough to pass subjects that required him to fail, such as mathematics. He was in conflict with higher-ranking staff and did not always follow the rules. "He collected demerits the way some people collect stamps." His class rank (894 of 899) was not representative of his intelligence nor his IQ. In 1958, McCain was born in Nevada.

McCain started his military career as an ensign and began two and a half years of training at Pensacola to become a naval aviator. He gained a reputation as a man who partied while being there. He completed flight school in 1960 and became a naval pilot of ground-attack aircraft; he was drafted into A-1 Skyraider squadrons aboard the aircraft carriers USS Intrepid and US Enterprise in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. McCain began as a sub-par flier who was careless and reckless, and two of his flight missions crashed during his flight missions from the early to mid-1960s, but no one was injured; however, he suffered no significant injuries. His aviation skills grew with time, and he was regarded as a good pilot, but not one who liked to "push the envelope" in his flying.

McCain married Carol Shepp, a runway model and secretary, on July 3, 1965. Douglas and Andrew, McCain's two young children, were adopted by the latter two young children. Sidney, he and Carol's daughter, were named Sidney in their honor. He was a one-day champion on Jeopardy one year ago!

McCain requested a combat service and was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal flying A-4 Skyhawks. His combat service began when Forstal, a 30-year-old soldier, was posted to Operation Rolling Thunder during the Vietnam War, when he was 30 years old. "In all honesty, we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots who had no idea what it took to win the war," McCain and his copilots became irritated by Washington's micromanagement, and he later wrote, "In all honesty, we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots who didn't have the slightest idea of what it took to win the war."

McCain was a lieutenant commander when he was near the Forrestal fire on July 29, 1967. When a bomb detonated, he escaped from his burning jet and was attempting to help another pilot; McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments. The ensuing fire killed 134 sailors and took 24 hours to control. McCain applied for an assignment with the United States Oriskany, another aircraft carrier involved in Operation Rolling Thunder, with the Forstal out of service. He was given the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star Medal for missions flown over North Vietnam.

On October 26, 1967, McCain was declared a prisoner of war. When his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi, he was on his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam. After ejected from the plane, McCain almost drowned after falling into Trc Bch Lake, he fractured both arms and a leg. Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, while others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayonets, who later bayoneted him. McCain was later admitted to Hanoi's main Hippo L Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton."

Although McCain was seriously wounded and injured, his captors refused to care for him. They beat and pleaded with information, and he was only given medical attention when the North Vietnamese learned that his father was an admiral. His reputation as a war prisoner (POW) appeared on front pages of major American newspapers.

McCain spent six weeks in the hospital, where he received no medical attention. He had lost 50 pounds (23 kg) while in a chest cast, and his gray hair had gone white. On the outskirts of Hanoi, McCain was sent to a new camp. McCain was put in a cell with two other Americans in December 1967, who did not expect him to live more than a week. McCain was sentenced to solitary confinement in March 1968, where he remained for two years.

His father, John S. McCain Jr., was appointed commander of all US forces in the Vietnam theater in mid-1968, and the North Vietnamese released McCain early because they wanted to appear compassionate for propaganda purposes and to inform other POWs that elite prisoners were able to be treated preferentially. McCain refused repatriation unless every man taken in before him was released. The early release of such early by the POWs' interpretation of the military Code of Conduct, which states in Article III: "I will not allow parole nor special favors from the enemy." Officers were forced to be released in the order in which they were detained to prevent the enemy from using prisoners for propaganda.

McCain was exposed to a program of severe torture beginning in August 1968. Every two hours, he was tied and beaten; this punishment came at a time when he was suffering from heat exhaustion and dysentery. McCain's recovery was interrupted by guards, who brought him to "the point of suicide." McCain eventually spoke to a "confession" of anti-U.S. propagation. He had always thought that his remark was dishonest, but later wrote, "I had learned what we all learned over there: every man has his breaking point." "I had hit mine." Many POWs in the United States were tortured and maltreated in order to compel "confessions" and propaganda messages; virtually every one of them escaped with something to their captors. McCain was forced to give additional details every week because he continued to refuse to sign additional letters.

McCain refused to consult with many anti-war organisations in Hanoi, citing his inability to give neither them nor the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory. McCain's and several other POWs were made more tolerable in late 1969, when McCain continued to defy the camp authorities. McCain and other prisoners celebrated the 1972 "Christmas Bombing" campaign in the United States, seeing it as a crucial step to bring North Vietnam to terms.

McCain was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years before being released on March 14, 1973, alongside 108 other prisoners of war. He was unable to raise his arms above his head due to his wartime injuries. McCain, joined by his family and his second wife Cindy, returned to the hospital on several occasions in the hopes of coming to terms with what had happened to him after his kidnapping.

When McCain returned to the United States, he was reunited with his family. Carol Hector was critically wounded by a car crash in December 1969. She was then four inches shorter, in a wheelchair or on crutches, and he was substantially heavier than she had been when she had last seen her. He became a celebrity of sorts as a returning POW.

McCain underwent surgery for his injuries, which required months of physical therapy. From 1973 to 1974, he attended Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.. He was rescued in late 1974 and his flight status was restored. He was appointed Commanding Officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida in 1976. He improved the unit's flight quality and safety credentials, and he earned the squad's first-ever Meritorious Unit Commendation. He had extramarital affairs during this time in Florida, and his marriage began to deteriorate, resulting in the realization that "the fault was solely mine."

McCain served as the Navy's liaison to the Senate from 1977 to 1985. In retrospect, he said this was his "true introduction to politics" and the start of my second career as a public servant." Against the Carter administration's wishes, his main behind-the-scenes job obtained congressional funds for a new supercarrier.

McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, whose father had established a large beer distributorship in April 1979. They started dating, and he begged his wife, Carol, to divorce him, as she did in February 1980; the uncontested divorce went into place in April 1980. Since she was in possession of two houses and financial assistance for her continuing medical care as a result of her 1969 car accident, the parties stayed on good terms. Senator William Cohen and Gary Hart were married on May 17, 1980, with Senator William Cohen and Gary Hart as groomsmen. McCain's children did not attend, and several years passed before they reconciled. John and Cindy McCain reached an agreement that kept the majority of her family's assets under her custody; they kept their accounts separate and filed separate income tax returns; and

McCain voted to leave the Navy. He was uncertain if he'd ever be promoted to the rank of full admiral, owing to his bad annual physical examinations and not been given a major sea command. His chances of being promoted to rear admiral were higher, but he turned down that opportunity because he had already registered for Congress and said he could do more good there.

On April 1, 1981, McCain resigned from the Navy as a captain. He was classified as disabled and received a disability pension. He moved to Arizona after leaving the military. He has received numerous military decorations and prizes, including the Silver Star, two Legion of Merits, Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and the Prisoner of War Medal.

(1982–2000) Archived and Senate elections (1982–2000) a career (1982–2000)

McCain set his sights on becoming a representative because he was keen on current events and had aspired to a new challenge, as well as having developed political aspirations during his time as Senate liaison. Hensley & Co., his current father-in-law Jim Hensley's huge Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship, lives in Phoenix. As vice president of public relations at the distributorship, he gained political traction in the local business community, including banker Charles Keating Jr., Fife Symington III (later Governor of Arizona) and newspaper publisher Darrow "Duke" Tully. In 1982, McCain ran for a Republican seat in Arizona's 1st congressional district, which was being vacated by 30-year incumbent Republican John Jacob Rhodes. McCain, a newcomer to the state, was accused of being a carpetbagger. McCain retaliated to a vote that was not familiar: "The most frightening reaction to a potentially troubling political issue I've ever heard" was described later by a Phoenix Gazette columnist.

McCain won a highly fought primary election with the help of local political endorsements, his Washington connections, and funds lent to his campaign. He then gained the general election in the heavily Republican district.

McCain was elected to lead the newly elected Republican legislature in 1983, and he was also appointed to the House Committee on Interior Affairs. In the year 2000, he opposed the establishment of a federal Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but later admitted that he had been wrong and that he later understood it [in 1990] for a state holiday in Arizona."

McCain's policies were generally in accordance with those of President Ronald Reagan; this included support for Reaganomics and the involvement of Indian Affairs bills. He supported the Contras in Nicaragua and the Reagan administration's hardline stance against the Soviet Union and policies against Central American conflicts. McCain opposed keeping US Marines in Lebanon, citing unobtainable goals, and then chastised President Reagan for pulling out the troops too late; in the interim, the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing killed hundreds of soldiers. McCain won re-election to the House of Commons in 1984 and also gained a spot on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He made his first return to Vietnam in 1985 and then traveled to Chile, where he met with its military junta chief, General Augusto Pinochet.

McCain and Cindy had their first child, Meghan, in 1984, followed by son John IV two years later and finally by grandson James. Cindy took an abandoned three-month-old girl from a Bangladeshi orphanage run by Mother Teresa in 1991. The McCains decided to adopt Bridget, and she was named Bridget.

McCain's Senate career began in January 1987, after he defeated former Democratic Senator Richard Kimball by 20 percentage points in the 1986 election. Senator Barry Goldwater, a Arizona native, conservative icon, and the 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater were among McCain's successors, after his retirement as a U.S. senator from Arizona for 30 years. McCain voted in favour of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 in January 1988 and then voted to reverse President Reagan's veto of the legislation the following March.

Senator McCain became a member of the Armed Services Committee, with whom he had previously served in Navy liaison positions; he also served on the Commerce Committee and the Indian Affairs Committee. He continued to endorse the Native American ideology. McCain was one of the main authors of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which codified laws regarding Native American gambling enterprises, first as first a member of Congress and then senator, and then as a lifelong gambler with close ties to the gaming industry. McCain was also a strong endorser of Gramm-Rudman legislation, which established automatic budget cuts in the case of budget deficits.

McCain gained national attention quickly. He made a well-received speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention, being identified by the media as a short list vice-presidential running mate for Republican nominee George H. W. Bush, and he was elected chairman of Veterans for Bush.

As one of five United States senators supporting the so-called Keating Five, McCain became embroiled in a scandal in the 1980s. McCain received $112,000 in lawful political contributions from Charles Keating Jr. and his associates at Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, as well as trips on Keating's jets, which McCain repaid in 1989. McCain was one of the five senators who Keating contacted in order to prevent Lincoln's seizure of Lincoln, and McCain visited federal regulators twice to discuss the government's probe into Lincoln. "The appearance of it was wrong," McCain said in 1999. It's a strange appearance when a group of senators attends a meeting with a group of regulators because it gives the appearance of undue and improper authority. It was the wrong thing to do." McCain was not found by the Senate Ethics Committee of improperly acting or breaching any statute or Senate rule, but he was cautioned for exercising "poor judgement."

The Keating Five affair was not a big issue in 1992, and he secured 51% of the vote to overthrowrown Democratic community and civil rights activist Claire Sargent and independent former governor Evan Mecham.

During the 1990s, McCain made a name for himself. He took pride in criticizing party leadership and establishment forces, which was difficult to categorize politically.

As a member of the 1991-1993 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, chaired by fellow Vietnam War veteran and Democrat John Kerry, McCain investigated the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue to determine the fate of US service personnel identified as missing in action during the Vietnam War. According to the committee's unanimous report, there were "no valid evidence that shows that no American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia." In 1995, the United States resumed diplomatic relations with Vietnam, aided by McCain's efforts. Despite the committee's unanimous report, several Americans were still imprisoned against their will in Southeast Asia. McCain was Chairman of the International Republican Institute, a US government agency partially funded by the US government that promotes the emergence of political democracy worldwide from January 1993 to his death.

McCain nominated Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was considered to be eligible for the Supreme Court in 1993 and 1994. "Under our Constitution, it is the president's call to make," he later said. Senator Ronald Reagan and George H.W. who had also voted to confirm the presidential candidates. These include Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

McCain attacked what he saw as the corrupting influence of major political figures—from corporations, labor unions, other companies, and wealthy individuals—and he made this his signature topic. He began working with Democratic Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold on campaign finance reform, and the McCain–Feingold bill attempted to place limits on "soft money" beginning in 1994. Both McCain and Feingold's efforts were criticized by several of the parties' funding constraints, some who felt spending limits placed on free political expression and some that might have been unconstitutional, as well as those who wanted to combat the influence of what they saw as media bias. Despite sympathetic coverage in the media, early versions of the McCain–Feingold Act were filibustered and never came to a vote.

"Maverick Republican" became a common term used by McCain, and he also used the term "maverick Republican" to describe it. McCain opposed military operations in Somalia in 1993. pork barrel spending by Congress was another target of his investigation, and he embraced the Line Item Veto Act of 1996, which gave the president the ability to veto individual spending items but was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1998.

McCain was once more on the shortlist of potential vice president picks in the 1996 presidential race, this time for Republican nominee Bob Dole. McCain was named one of America's Most Influential People in 2011 by Time magazine over the next year.

McCain became chairman of the influential Senate Commerce Committee in 1997, but he was chastised for accepting funds from corporations and businesses under the committee's jurisdiction, but in response, he said that the few contributions he received were not part of the campaign finance crisis was not due to the big-money nature of the campaign finance issue. McCain took on the tobacco industry in 1998, enforcing laws that would raise cigarette taxes in order to fund anti-smoking campaigns, discourage teenage smokers, increase funding for health care research, and help states pay for smoking-related health care costs. The Clinton administration backed the bill, but the industry and most Republicans opposed it, but it was unable to gain cloture.

McCain re-electing to a third Senate term in November 1998; he gained landslide over his Democratic adversary, environmental lawyer Ed Ranger. Following Bill Clinton's impeachment, McCain convicted the president on both the perplexity and obstruction of justice charges, determining that Clinton had breached his sworn oath of office. McCain accepted the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia's federal Republic, saying that the Kosovo war's continuing genocide must be stopped and condemned past Clinton administration inaction. McCain received the Profile in Courage Award with Feingold in 1999 for their efforts to implement their campaign finance reform, but the bill was still struggling to gain cloture.

McCain's book Faith of My Fathers, co-authored with Mark Salter in August 1999, was released; a commentator said that it was "timed to the unfolding Presidential election." It received positive reviews and was turned into a best-selling book, which was later turned into a TV series. McCain's family history and childhood, as well as his service during and after the Vietnam War, culminating in his freedom from captivity in 1973. It's "the kind of challenges that most of us can barely comprehend," according to one reviewer. It's an amazing military family "that has a long history."

Senate career (2000–2008)

McCain began in 2001 by breaking with the new George W. Bush administration on a variety of topics, including HMO revision, climate change, and gun control laws; McCain–Feingold was also opposed by Bush. McCain was one of only two Senate Republicans to vote against the Bush tax cuts in May 2001. Beyond the ideological divisions with Bush, there was a lot of animosity between the two groups that had not campaigned in the previous year. Later, when Jim Jeffords, a Republican senator, became an Independent, essentially handing over the Senate to Democrats, McCain defended Jeffords against "self-appointed enforcers of party allegiance." Well, there was rumors about McCain's resignation from the Republican Party at the time and in years after, but McCain had always denied that he ever considered doing so. McCain rose from his presidential campaign, as well as improved legislative skills and connections with other senators, to become one of the Senate's most influential members, beginning in 2001.

McCain praised Bush and the US-led war in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. Joe Lieberman, a former senator of New York, authored the legislation that established the 9/11 Commission, while Democratic senator Fritz Hollings cosponsored the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which federalized airport security.

In March 2002, McCain–Feingold, also known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, passed in both Houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Bush. It was McCain's highest legislative achievement during his seven-year tenure.

In the meantime, McCain, a leading promoter of the Bush administration's position in discussions over pending US actions against Iraq, was a ferocious promoter of the Bush administration's position. He said that Iraq was "a concrete and imminent threat to the United States of America," and that the Iraq War Resolution was approved in October 2002. By a large number of the Iraqi people, he predicted that US forces would be treated as liberators. McCain voted against the second round of Bush tax cuts in May 2003, saying it was unwise at a time of war. After a trip to Iraq in November 2003, McCain was openly criticizing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who said that more US troops were needed; the following year, McCain declared that he had lost hope in Rumsfeld.

McCain and Lieberman cosponsored the Climate Stewardship Act, which would have introduced a cap and trade scheme aimed at restoring greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels in October 2003; the bill was defeated by 55 votes to 43 in the Senate. For the first time in January 2007, they reintroduced modified versions of the Act twice more, including some co-sponsorship of Barack Obama.

McCain was once more voted for the vice president in the 2004 Democratic presidential race, this time as part of the Democratic ticket under new Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Kerry never officially offered him the position, and McCain said he would not have accepted it if he had. McCain praised Bush's administration of the War on Terror since the September 11 attacks at the 2004 Republican National Convention, lauding Bush's leadership of the war on Terror since the September 11 attacks. At the same time, Kerry defended Kerry's Vietnam War record. McCain had the highest favorable-to-unfavorable rating (55 percent to 19 percent) by August 2004; he ran for Bush much more than he had four years ago, but the two friends remained situational allies rather than friends.

In 2004, McCain ran for re-election as senator, and in 2004. Stuart Starky, a little-known Democratic schoolteacher, gained his largest margin of victory, winning 77% of the election.

McCain founded the so-called Gang of 14 in the Senate in May 2005, but only in "extraordinary circumstances." The deal brought the filibuster movement to a halt, but some Republicans were dissatisfied that the agreement did not exclude filibusters of judicial candidates under any circumstance. McCain later cast Supreme Court confirmation votes in favour of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, describing them as "two of the finest justices ever appointed to the United States Supreme Court."

McCain voted for the Bush tax cut extension in May 2006, although not to do so would result in a tax hike, according to McCain, who was still campaigning for a raise in 2001 and 2003. McCain, who worked with Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, was a vocal proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, which would include legalization, guest worker services, and border enforcement components. In 2005, the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act was never passed on, but the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 passed the Senate in May 2006 but failed in the House. President Bush, McCain, and others made the most outraged grassroots resistance against such a bill in June 2007, but it sparked widespread community outrage among talk radio listeners and others, some of whom even described it as a "amnesty" scheme, and the bill twice failed to secure Senate cloture.

McCain's new Indian gaming, which had helped bring about by the 2000s, was worth $23 billion by the time. He served as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 1995–1997 and 2005–2007, and his commission helped expose the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal. McCain, a 2005-to-date senator, was calling for amendments to the Indian Gaming Control Act, which would limit the number of off-reservation casinos and also restricted the movement of tribes across state boundaries to build casinos.

McCain was known for his sensitivity to the detention and interrogation of prisoners in the War on Terror, during his time as a POW. "Some of these guys are violent, cruel murderers, and the worst kind of scum of humanity," an opponent of the Bush administration's use of torture and detention without a trial at Guantánamo Bay. However, one, they do need to have some adjudication of their lawsuits... even Adolf Eichmann got a hearing. McCain introduced the McCain Detainee Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill in October 2005, and the Senate passed 90–9 to endorse the amendment. It prohibits cruel treatment of prisoners, including prisoners in Guantánamo, by restricting military interrogations to the methods in the US Army Field Manual on Interrogation. Although Bush threatened to veto the bill if McCain's amendment was accepted, the President said in December 2005 that he accepted McCain's words and that "this government does not torture and that we follow the international convention of torture." McCain was selected by Time magazine in 2006 as one of America's Top Senators, owing to his behavior. McCain voted in February 2008 against a bill that contained a ban on waterboarding, which was later narrowly passed and vetoed by Bush. However, the bill in question contained other sections to which McCain protested, including the following: "This wasn't a vote on waterboarding," McCain said. "This was a vote on whether or not the [Army] field manual be used to CIA employees."

McCain, on the other hand, continued to question the war's progress in Iraq. "Things haven't gone as well as we had expected or predicted," Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in September 2005. "We [have] not told the American people how tough and difficult this could be" in August, he criticized the government for consistently undermining the resistance's effectiveness: McCain embraced the Iraq troop surge of 2007. The campaign's critics dubbed it "McCain's scheme" and University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato said, "McCain owns Iraq just as much as Bush does now." During most of the year, even within the Republican Party, McCain's presidential campaign was unpopular; faced with the consequences, McCain often stated, "I'd much rather lose a campaign than a war." McCain credited the surge strategy with reducing the violence in Iraq when he returned to the country for the eighth time since the war started in March 2008.

Senate career after 2008

Following his demise, McCain returned to the Senate amid varying opinions about what role he might play. He spoke with President-elect Obama in mid-November 2008, and the two talked about topics that they shared. McCain also stated that he planned to run for re-election to his Senate seat in 2010. As the inauguration approached, Obama talked to McCain about a variety of topics, including one that was never seen between a president-elect and his defeated rival, as well as President Barack Obama's inauguration address referred to McCain's emphasis on finding a greater purpose than oneself.

However, McCain remained a leader of the Republican opposition to the Obama economic recovery plan of 2009, saying that it included federal policy reforms that had nothing to do with near-term job creation and would increase the growing federal budget deficit. McCain also voted against Obama's Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, saying that, although formally qualified, "I do not believe that she shares my belief in judicial restraint"—and that by August 2009, his Republican Party was more likely to support closely divided votes than ever before in his senatorial career. McCain reaffirmed that the war in Afghanistan was winnable and chastised Obama for a lengthy process in determining whether or not to deploy additional US troops there.

McCain also chastised Obama for scrapping the development of the US missile defense complex in Poland, refused to discuss climate change policy that was similar to what he had suggested in the past, and strongly opposed the Obama health care reform bill. McCain led to the success of a bill that would see the removal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy against gays. Senator John Kerry's resurgent involvement in McCain's new direction included senators, a renewed worry about national debt levels and the size of federal government, a potential Republican primary challenge from conservatives in 2010, and McCain's campaign edge was slow to wear off. "A lot of people, including myself, believed he would be the Republican building bridges to the Obama administration," one longtime McCain advisor said. But he's been more like the guy blowing up the bridges.

In early 2010, a key challenge from radio talk show host and former US diplomat Bill Clinton was posed in a primary challenge. J. D. Hayworth, a lawmaker from Arizona, appeared in the 2010 US Senate election and received some but not all of the Tea Party's key issues. "The Consistent Conservative Conservative" was Hayworth's campaign slogan, despite his own use of the word on several occasions—"I never considered myself a maverick." "I consider myself a person who assists the people of Arizona to the fullest of his ability." The biggest challenge was whether McCain reversing or muting his views on topics including bank bailouts, closing of the Guantánamo Bay detention center, campaign finance constraints, and gays in the military.

When the health-care reform bill, now known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed Congress and became law in March 2010, McCain opposed the landmark legislation not only on its merits but also on the way it had been handled in Congress. As a result, he cautioned that congressional Republicans would not engage with Democrats on anything else: "There will be no cooperation for the remainder of the year." They've poisoned the well with what they've done and how they've done it." McCain, a vocal supporter of Arizona SB 1070, the tough anti-illegal immigration state law that sparked national interest, said the state had been compelled to take action due to the federal government's inability to regulate the border. McCain defeated Hayworth by a 56 to 32 percent margin in the primary on August 24. In the general election, McCain defeated Democratic Tucson city councilman Rodney Glassman comfortably.

McCain voted for compromise Tax Relief, Unemployment Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, but not against the DREAM Act (which he had once supported) and the New START Treaty. He became the leading figure in the eventually losing fight against the "Don't ask, don't tell" repeal, which was largely ignored. He would sometimes fall into rage or hostility on the Senate floor, and called its passage "a very sad day" that would jeopardize the military's ability.

Although the House of Representatives voted in favor of the Republicans in the 112th Congress, the Senate retained Democrats, and McCain remained the top member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. As the Arab Spring took center stage, McCain recommended that Egypt's troubled Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, step down and that the US should press for political changes in the region despite the dangers of religious insurgents taking power. McCain was a vocal promoter of the 2011 military strike in Libya. He visited the Anti-Gaddafi forces and National Transitional Council in Benghazi in April of this year, becoming the highest-ranking American to do so, and said the rebel forces were "my heroes." "The Obama administration's disinterest in the elected representatives of the American people on this issue has been troubling and counterproductive," he said in June. McCain supported the 2011 Budget Control Act, which ended the US debt ceiling crisis in August. Senator John McCain and Senator Carl Levin were among those working to codify in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 that terrorist suspects could be detained by the US military and its tribunal system, and following civil libertarians' protests, some Democrats, and the White House, McCain and Levin refused to say that the bill does not concern to US civilians.

McCain endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and campaigned for him, but compared the contest to a Greek tragedy due to its protracted nature and huge super PAC-funded attack ads attacking all the candidates in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries. The Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision was described as "uninformed, selfish, nave," and he, who condemned the court's decision and the forthcoming scandals he feared, predicted that it would be the court's "worst decision" in the 21st century. McCain led the way in protesting the spending sequestrations triggered by the 2011 budget control Act, gaining attention for defending State Department aide Huma Abedin against charges raised by a few House Republicans that she had links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

McCain remained to be one of the most popular guests on Sunday morning's news talk shows. He became one of the most vocal critics of the Obama administration's handling of the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, as a "debacle" with either "an extensive cover-up or incompetence that is not acceptable" and that it was worse than the Watergate affair. As a result of this strong resistance, he and a handful of other senators were able to prevent the planned appointment of Ambassador to the United States Secretary of State Susan Rice to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton as the US Secretary of State; McCain's companion and colleague John Kerry was voted instead.

McCain had frequently called for the United States to deploy militaryly in the 2011 Syrian civil war that had erupted. In May 2013, he hosted a visit to rebel forces inside Syria, becoming the first senator to do so, as well as calling for the arming of the Free Syrian Army with heavy arms and the establishment of a no-fly zone throughout the region. Following news that two of the people he photographed with was responsible for the abduction of eleven Lebanese Shiite pilgrims the year before, McCain denied one of the identities and said he had not met directly with the other. Following the 2013 Ghouta chemical weapons attack, McCain pleaded for more American military action against Bashar al-Assad's government, a Syrian president, whose government has voted in favor of Obama's request to Congress that it authorize a military response. Senator Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, as well as Representative Justin Amash, were among the first to condemn a growing non-interventionist movement within the Republican Party, which was exemplified by McCain's remarks in March 2013 that Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz were "wacko birds."

McCain was a member of the "Gang of Eight" party of senators, which revealed the principles for another attempt at comprehensive immigration reform in 2013. The 2013 Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act passed by a 68-32 margin in the Senate, but it faced a turbulent future in the House. Without Democrats resorting to the "nuclear alternative" that would prevent such filibusters from being completely outlawed, McCain was at the forefront of a bid among senators to eliminate filibusters against Obama administration executive candidates in July 2013. However, the option would be introduced later this year, in reaction to Senator John Kerry's displeasure. McCain now had improved relations with the Obama administration, including the president himself, as well as Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and he had assumed the position of a power center in the Senate for cutting deals in an often bitterly partisan atmosphere. Some commentators went as far as to say that McCain's "maverick" had returned.

McCain was skeptical of the Republican plan that triggered the 2013 and U.S. debt-ceiling war in order to defund or postpone the Affordable Care Act in order to defund or postpone the Affordable Care Act; "Republicans must accept that we will not win this battle because we were demanding something that was not achievable," he said in October 2013. In the same vein, he was one of nine Republican senators who voted for the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 at the end of the year. McCain's apostasies had been so strong by early 2014 that the Arizona Republican Party had officially censured him for having what they regarded as a liberal record that had been "disastrous and damaging." McCain remained steadfastly opposed to several aspects of Obama's foreign policy, and in June 2014, the president ordered that the entire national security team be recalled, despite significant gains made in Iraq and Levant's 2014 Northern Iraq offensive. "Maybe all this have been avoided?" McCain said. ... Absolutely yes. I am ill, so it is because I am angry."

McCain was a promoter of the Euromaidan protests against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his government, and he appeared in Independence Square in Kyiv in December 2013. McCain became a vocal supporter of Ukrainian military forces in Ukraine following Yanukovych's overthrowrow and subsequent 2014 Russian military involvement in Ukraine, saying that the sanctions against Russia were not sufficient. McCain led the opposition to the nomination of Colleen Bell, Noah Mamet, and George Tsunis to the ambassadorships of Hungary, Argentina, and Norway in 2014, claiming that they were unqualified appointees for their political contributions. Unlike many Republicans, McCain endorsed the publication and contents of the Senate Intelligence Committee's study on CIA torture in December 2014, saying, "The truth is sometimes a difficult pill to swallow." We often have trouble at home and abroad when it comes to travel. Our adversaries also use it to hurt us. Despite this, the American people are entitled to it." Following the September 11 attacks, he said the CIA's activities had "stained our national glory" while doing "much more harm and little practical good" and that "Our adversaries act without conscience." We must not do this." He condemned the Obama administration's attempt to normalize relations with Cuba in December 2014.

With Republicans in charge of the Senate in January 2015, the 114th United States Congress reconvenes, and McCain accomplished one of his long-serving goals when he became chairman of the Armed Services Committee in January 2015. In this capacity, he authored and coauthored the draft of legislation that sought to reform portions of the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 in order to return responsibility for major weapons system acquisitions to the individual armed services and their secretaries, rather than the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. McCain maintained a bipartisan agenda and established a positive rapport with ranking member Jack Reed as Chairman. McCain declared in April 2015 that he would run for a sixth term in Arizona's 2016 Senate election. Although conservative and Tea Party outraged him, it was unclear if they would mount an effective primary challenge against him. McCain sluggishly opposed the Obama administration's ambitious compromise on the Iranian nuclear program during 2015 (later called "Japan-Delving] away the store" in talks with Iran. McCain praised Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Yemen against the Shia Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, saying, "I'm positive civilians die in war." Not nearly as many as the Houthis have executed."

McCain accused President Obama of being "fully responsible" for the Orlando nightclub shooting "because after he pulled everyone out of Iraq, al-Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today, due to Barack Obama's failures."

In spite of his personal differences with Trump, McCain said he would vote for the Republican nominee even if it was Donald Trump.

However, McCain endorsed the sentiments expressed in the speech, saying he had serious reservations about Trump's "uninformed and even harmful remarks on national security questions." Since early in Trump's 2016 presidential race, the two parties' relations had been tense, and McCain called a room full of Trump supporters "crazies"; and the real estate mogul later described it as "hateful." Since he was kidnapped, he was a war hero. I like people who weren't captured... maybe he was a war hero, but a lot of people are already guilty of a lot of bad stuff." This was widely condemned by much of the Republican Party, with Senator Marco Rubio referring to Trump's remarks as "offensive rantings," columnist Rick Santorum's tweeting that "@SenJohnMcCain is an American hero, period," and Governor Scott Walker's use of the remarks as the basis for his denunciation of Trump in a campaign function in Sioux City. In 1996, McCain first voted against a federal loan guarantee for a development initiative. Following Trump's election as the party's presumtive nominee on May 3, McCain said that Republican voters had spoken and that he would accept Trump.

Kelli Ward, a zealous Trump supporter, faced McCain in the primary and was expected to face Ann Kirkpatrick in the general election. Sen. Paul resigned quietly concerned about the consequences of Trump's unpopularity among Hispanic voters, but also concerned with more conservative pro-Trump voters; he nevertheless retained his support of him but tried to talk to him as little as possible in the wake of their differences. However, McCain defeated Ward by a double-digit percentage point margin in the primary and took a close lead over Kirkpatrick in general election polling, and when the Donald Trump Access Hollywood controversy broke, he felt confident enough to withdraw his support for Trump on October 8. McCain said that while Trump's "demeaning remarks about women and his boasts about sexual assaults made it "impossible to continue to provide even conditional assistance" and that he would not vote for Hillary Clinton but rather "write in the name of a smart conservative Republican who is qualified to be president." McCain, who was 80 years old at the time, stunned Kirkpatrick, winning a sixth term as a United States Senator from Arizona.

In November 2016, McCain discovered that a report concerning the Trump presidential campaign's links to Russia that had been assembled by Christopher Steele. McCain sent a representative to gather more details after obtaining a copy of the dossier. In December 2016, McCain met with FBI Director James Comey in a 1-on-1 meeting. McCain later reported that the dossier's "allegations were troubling," but that he did not know it by himself, so he allowed the FBI to investigate.

McCain said in Tbilisi, Georgia, on December 31, 2016, that the US should increase its sanctions against Russia. The State Department reported on December 23, 2017, one year later, that the United States will provide Ukraine with "enhanced defensive capabilities."

Senator and Democratic senators and intelligence officers, including James R. Clapper Jr., the director of National Intelligence and United States Cyber Command, reaffirmed the conclusion that the Russian government used hacking and leaks to influence the presidential election, which McCain chaired at the Senate Armed Services Committee on January 5, 2017.

McCain voted in favor of President Donald Trump's contentious arms agreement with Saudi Arabia in June 2017.

McCain's 2016 re-election bid included repealing and replacing Obamacare, which has left Arizonans with some of the country's highest premium hikes, and left 14 of Arizona's 15 counties with only one provider choice on the exchanges this year," he said. He promoted affordable and quality health care, but complained that the unfinished Senate bill did not do enough to shield Arizona's Medicaid system.

"This is only the latest example of Communist China's assault on human rights, democracy, and liberty," McCain said in reaction to the death of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died of organ failure while under government detention.

In September 2017, as the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar became ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority, McCain declared moves to abandon planned future military cooperation with Myanmar.

McCain lauded President Trump's decision to decertify Iran's participation in the Iran nuclear agreement (JCPOA), but not yet withdrawing the US from the deal, saying that the Obama-era strategy failed to counter the multifaceted threat that Iran faces. President Trump's speech today outlined the objectives as a long overdue change.

McCain underwent minimally invasive craniotomy at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, in order to remove a blood clot above his left eye on July 14, 2017. Senator Mitch McConnell's absence prompted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to postpone a vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act. Mayo Clinic doctors reported that the laboratory findings from the surgery revealed a glioblastoma, which is a common cancerous brain tumor. This tumor treatment options include chemotherapy and radiation, but with treatment, the median survival time is around 14 months. McCain, a patient of previous cancers, including melanoma, survived.

President Donald Trump wished Senator McCain well, as did many others, including former President Barack Obama. McCain's senatorial office released a statement on July 19 that he "appreciates the outpouring of support he has received in recent days." He is back to health with his family in Arizona and has a positive mood. He is grateful to the doctors and workers at Mayo Clinic for their outstanding care, and is confident that any future therapy will be beneficial." McCain revealed on Twitter on July 24, that he would return to the Senate the following day.

McCain returned to the Senate on July 25, less than two weeks after brain surgery. He cast a deciding vote that allowed the Senate to begin considering bills to replace the Affordable Care Act. McCain also spoke out in opposition of the Republican party-line voting procedure used by the Republicans, as well as by Democrats in passing the Affordable Care Act to begin, and McCain recommended a "return to regular order" in conjunction with the regular committee hearings and deliberations. He voted against the Republicans' final plan, the so-called "skinny repeal" option, which lost 49–51, on July 28, he was the decisive vote against the Republicans' final plan that month. McCain favors the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Since December 2017, McCain did not vote in the Senate after returning to Arizona for cancer treatment. He underwent surgery for an infection relating to diverticulitis on April 15, 2018, and the following day was reported in good health.

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