Alabama Reaction to Sen. McCain’s Death

Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon (R – Monrovia) on Saturday released the following statement in response to the passing of U.S. Senator John McCain (R – Arizona), who died following a yearlong battle with glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer:

“As Speaker of the Alabama House, I would like to express the body’s deepest and most heartfelt condolences upon the passing of a great patriot, U.S. Senator John McCain.

John McCain devoted a lifetime of service to his country as a naval aviator and prisoner of war and, later, as a member of the U.S. House and Senate.

Just as when he turned down the early release offered to him by his North Vietnamese captors, Sen. McCain turned his back on the easy route of quiet military retirement and thrust himself into the combative and turbulent public arena because he felt his country’s call.

Even when he sometimes took positions in the U.S. Senate that disappointed conservatives, his sense of sacrifice, perseverance, and duty to nation was always recognized, admired, and celebrated.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, he carried the Republican Party’s banner as its nominee, and he ran a strong and competitive race even when a historic economic downturn and the effects of an increasingly unpopular war conspired against him.

Our thoughts and prayers of contentment go out to the McCain family during this time of loss.”

House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter on Saturday released the following statement upon news that U.S. Senator John McCain passed away in Arizona from complications related to the brain cancer he has battled for the past year:

“The members of the Alabama House Republican Caucus join the rest of the nation in mourning the death of U.S. Senator John McCain, a true American patriot.

John McCain was a fierce warrior in every sense of the word whether he was fighting the North Vietnamese who held him captive, promoting the issues in which he believed on the floor of the Senate, or battling the aggressive brain cancer that ultimately took him.

His examples of bravery, resilience, and devotion to his country are legendary.

While a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he turned down an early release and, instead, organized resistance efforts against his captors while working to buoy the spirits of his fellow POWs.

As a member of the U.S. Senate, he promoted a strong and well-funded military, sought to recover the remains of servicemen were were list as POW/MIA for decades, and helped heal the wounds of the Vietnam conflict by returning to visit the ‘Hanoi Hilton,’ where he was once held captive.

While some of us may have differed with him politically from time to time, no one can question his commitment to our nation and to charting what his heart believed was the right course.