Sen. John McCain awarded Liberty Medal for lifetime of sacrifice, service

PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain was awarded the Liberty Medal on Monday, a prestigious honor that recognizes his “lifetime of sacrifice and service” to the country.

McCain was awarded the medal by the National Constitution Center during a ceremony on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

During the ceremony, a whole host of McCain’s colleagues and friends spoke on behalf of the senior senator’s devotion to his country, calling him a “maverick” who was a role model to younger senators.

Congratulations to @SenJohnMcCain, recipient of the @ConstitutionCtr's 2017 #LibertyMedal! pic.twitter.com/qMG5Rt7AmO

— National Constitution Center (@ConstitutionCtr) October 17, 2017

Sen. Jeff Flake, Arizona’s junior senator, said people have tremendous respect for McCain, due to his time serving in the Navy and the five years he spent as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam.

“When he talks, the room goes quiet because people know something good is about to be said,” he said.

Cindy McCain, the senator’s wife, said McCain “has always put this country first, in everything.”

In a tweet, former President Barack Obama praised the Republican senator, saying he is “grateful to @SenJohnMcCain for his lifetime of service to our country. Congratulations, John, on receiving this year’s Liberty Medal.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who gifted the medal to McCain, delivered a touching speech that touched on the pair’s 40-plus year friendship that stretched back to the senator’s time in the Navy.

Grateful to be @ConstitutionCtr with my dear friend @JoeBiden for the #LibertyMedal Award Cermony in #Philadelphia pic.twitter.com/kNqjpycouk

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) October 16, 2017

In a series of prepared remarks, McCain used his time in the spotlight to issue a call to American ideals and emphasize the importance of bipartisanship in government.

McCain said, during their times in the Senate, him and Biden did not always get along.

But, despite their disagreements, McCain said they believed in “each other’s patriotism, “the institution we were privileged to serve,” “our mutual responsibility to help make the place work” and “our country’s indispensability to international peace and stability and to the progress of humanity.”

During his speech, McCain’s voice often wavered as he discussed his service, saying he was “so very grateful” “to spend sixty years in service to this wondrous land.”

But McCain also did not hold back.

The senator used a portion of his speech to issue a call to American ideals, at one point indirectly attacking President Donald Trump’s approach to international leadership.

“To refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain ‘the last best hope of earth’ for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history,” he said.

But McCain closed his speech with another tribute to the U.S., calling it “the land of the free, the land where anything is possible, the land of the immigrant’s dream.”

“What a privilege it is to serve this big, boisterous, brawling, intemperate, striving, daring, beautiful, bountiful, brave, magnificent country,” McCain said.

“With all our flaws, all our mistakes, with all the frailties of human nature as much on display as our virtues, with all the rancor and anger of our politics, we are blessed,” he added.

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