Sen. Jeff Flake said Sunday he’d put off writing an appreciation of fellow Arizona GOP Senator John McCain because he hoped “the longer I held off maybe the longer he’d be with us.”
Flake, whose Washington Post piece appeared online after McCain’s death Saturday, called the article “tough to write.”
“I’ve been meaning to do it for a while and couldn’t bring myself to do it, thinking that the longer I held off maybe the longer he’d be with us,” Flake said in remarks on ABC News’ “This Week.” “But it was heartfelt.”
The retiring senator said McCain was known for his temper, but it was his ability “to forgive” that’ll be his enduring legend.
“His people talk about he had a temper,” Flake said. “It was passionate, that’s certainly the case. But he would quickly forgive and move on and to see the good in his opponents, that is something that particularly these days we could use a lot more of. That’s a lesson that he taught everyone.”
“By seeing the good in our opponents, by being quick to forgive, by realizing that there’s something more important than ourselves, to put service, you know, over and above our self-interest, as he often said…I think that that’s how we honor him,” Flake added.
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