Kasich: There will never be another John McCain
By Tal Axelrod - 09/01/18 06:21 PM EDT
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) in a new interview paid homage to the late Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainThe peculiar priorities of Adam Schiff Ocasio-Cortez fires back at Lindsey Graham: 'Graham wants to bring back 1950s McCarthyism' Meghan McCain knocks Lindsey Graham for defending Trump's tweets: 'This is not the person I used to know' MORE (R-Ariz.), saying "There'll never be another John McCain."
"That underlying faith and love of his country, and his willingness to stand up, and being comfortable with himself, there'll never be another one like him. Never," Kasich said in an interview set to air Sunday on CBS News's "Face the Nation." "There'll be never be another John McCain."
Kasich, who spoke with CBS's Margaret Brennan after attending Saturday's funeral service in Washington for McCain, referenced McCain's 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns to call for unity.
"Margaret, this is not easy for me to say. Having come … from a service and wanting to be unified. But you know, in some respects, it's like McCain," he said. Sometimes we have to have … a little straight talk about all this. But we're too divided. And I think that was part of his message," he said.
McCain dubbed his campaign bus the "Straight Talk Express" when he was on the road.
Kasich also reflected on McCain's faith, saying it kept him strong during his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"They said that when he was in the prison camp — and I had a friend who was in there with him – he led the prayer services and he told them, 'Don't pray to be released, pray to be strong,'" he said.
McCain died Aug. 25 at age 81 after battling an aggressive form of brain cancer. Widely regarded as a "maverick" and "hero," the Arizona senator was respected by colleagues and friends across the political spectrum during his decades-long tenure in the Senate.
He is survived by his 106-year-old mother, Roberta, wife, Cindy, and seven children.
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