--- title: John McCain: Read His Liberty Medal Award Ceremony Speech description: The GOP senator rebutted U.S. isolationism during his speech at the Liberty Medal Award Ceremony. Read his prepared remarks here. canonical: https://time.com/4985185/john-mccain-liberty-medal-speech/ author: Kevin Lui article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-17T02:44:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:53:15.059Z article:section: Politics og:title: John McCain's Liberty Medal Award Ceremony: Full Speech og:description: McCain hailed the U.S. as "the land of the immigrant's dream" og:url: https://time.com/4985185/john-mccain-liberty-medal-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7d55d3084b5785d/6988e236096a94c4a46a0095/gettyimages-862141936.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: John McCain Honored With Liberty Medal For A Lifetime Of Service og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain's Liberty Medal Award Ceremony: Full Speech twitter:description: McCain hailed the U.S. as "the land of the immigrant's dream" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7d55d3084b5785d/6988e236096a94c4a46a0095/gettyimages-862141936.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read the Full Text of John McCain's Speech at the Liberty Medal Award Ceremony > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Kevin Lui](https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/) ## Kevin Lui Oct 17, 2017 2:44 AM UTC  Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) makes remarks after receiving the the 2017 Liberty Medal from former Vice President Joe Biden (not shown) at the National Constitution Center on October 16, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) makes remarks after receiving the the 2017 Liberty Medal from former Vice President Joe Biden (not shown) at the National Constitution Center on October 16, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.William Thomas Cain—Getty Images by [Kevin Lui](https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/) ## Kevin Lui Oct 17, 2017 2:44 AM UTC Sen. John McCain offered a sharp rebuttal of isolationism Monday night during his speech at the 2017 Liberty Medal Award Ceremony. “We are living in the land of the free, the land where anything is possible, the land of the immigrant’s dream,” said the Republican from Arizona, who [received the award](http://time.com/4985180/john-mccain-liberty-medal-biden/) from the National Constitution Center. “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 declared. McCain [has been](http://time.com/4924866/john-mccain-congress-trump-op-ed/) a [frequent critic](http://time.com/4928403/john-mccain-daca-immigration-donald-trump-barack-obama/) of President Donald Trump’s [isolationist view](http://time.com/4814684/john-mccain-barack-obama-donald-trump/) of America’s role in the world, ever since Trump took office in January. He has often spoken out against Trump’s policies and [executive actions](http://time.com/4917014/joe-arpaio-pardon-reaction-john-mccain-jeff-flake/), and the two have [traded](http://ime.com/4954614/donald-trump-john-mccain-health-bill/) verbal barbs [often](http://time.com/3964229/donald-trump-john-mccain-war-hero-apology/). Here is the[ prepared version of McCain’s speech,](https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=3E879161-766F-4E0B-8FC9-F446A9F341F5) as released by his Senate office. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4985185/john-mccain-liberty-medal-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4985185/john-mccain-liberty-medal-speech/"},"headline":"Read the Full Text of John McCain's Speech at the Liberty Medal Award Ceremony","datePublished":"2017-10-17T02:44:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:53:15.059Z","description":"McCain hailed the U.S. as \"the land of the immigrant's dream\"","url":"https://time.com/4985185/john-mccain-liberty-medal-speech/","keywords":["John McCain","Donald Trump","transcript","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7d55d3084b5785d/6988e236096a94c4a46a0095/gettyimages-862141936.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kevin Lui","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7d55d3084b5785d/6988e236096a94c4a46a0095/gettyimages-862141936.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John McCain Honored With Liberty Medal For A Lifetime Of Service","caption":"John McCain Honored With Liberty Medal For A Lifetime Of Service","creditText":"William Thomas Cain—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/john-mccain/","name":"John McCain"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4985185/john-mccain-liberty-medal-speech/","name":"Read the Full Text of John McCain's Speech at the Liberty Medal Award Ceremony"}}]}] ```