--- title: Hillary Clinton Talks About John McCain's Legacy description: Hillary Clinton praised John McCain, saying he embodied what it meant to be American and how important compromise was to politics. canonical: https://time.com/5378442/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-legacy/ author: Alix Langone article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-26T14:34:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:15:37.907Z article:section: Politics og:title: John McCain 'Set an Example of Working Across the Aisle,' Says Hillary Clinton og:description: "He knew the Senate couldn't work if we didn't work together" og:url: https://time.com/5378442/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-legacy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64af102da625b845/698938b5929fad6377bf16a4/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-meet-the-press.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hillary-Clinton-John-McCain-Legacy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain 'Set an Example of Working Across the Aisle,' Says Hillary Clinton twitter:description: "He knew the Senate couldn't work if we didn't work together" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64af102da625b845/698938b5929fad6377bf16a4/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-meet-the-press.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McCain 'Set an Example of Working Across the Aisle,' Says Hillary Clinton by [Alix Langone](https://time.com/author/alix-langone/) ## Alix Langone Aug 26, 2018 2:34 PM UTC  Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator John McCain. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator John McCain.Jeff Snyder - FilmMagic/Getty Images by [Alix Langone](https://time.com/author/alix-langone/) ## Alix Langone Aug 26, 2018 2:34 PM UTC Former Democratic presidential nominee [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4935148/hillary-clinton-what-happened-politics/) remembered her friend and colleague [Arizona Senator John McCain](http://time.com/5286085/john-mccain-pow-remembrance/), highlighting his commitment to Americans — both in the military and as a public servant. “He leaves a legacy of service and courage,” Clinton said Sunday during a phone appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “The courage we all came to know because of his time as a P.O.W, but getting up everyday and working as hard as he did for the people of Arizona, for the values that he cherished, wasn’t easy.” > [](https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1033704580524265472) McCain died on Saturday after a battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, shortly after his family announced he was stopping treatment for the disease. Clinton also said that McCain “set an example of working across the aisle” and tried to bring people together — a bipartisan style he became known for throughout his more than three decades in politics. “He knew the Senate couldn’t work if we didn’t work together,” she said. Clinton and McCain may have been on different sides of the aisle, but their political careers took similar paths. Both were defeated by Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election — Clinton lost in the primary and McCain lost in the general election — and the lifelong politicians spent almost a decade together in the Senate. “I have so many wonderful personal memories of him as well as public ones,” Clinton said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5378442/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-legacy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5378442/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-legacy/"},"headline":"John McCain 'Set an Example of Working Across the Aisle,' Says Hillary Clinton","datePublished":"2018-08-26T14:34:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:15:37.907Z","description":"\"He knew the Senate couldn't work if we didn't work together\"","url":"https://time.com/5378442/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-legacy/","keywords":["Congress","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64af102da625b845/698938b5929fad6377bf16a4/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-meet-the-press.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alix Langone","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alix-langone/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64af102da625b845/698938b5929fad6377bf16a4/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-meet-the-press.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary-Clinton-John-McCain-Legacy","caption":"Hillary Clinton and John McCain smiling","creditText":"Jeff Snyder - FilmMagic/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/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5378442/hillary-clinton-john-mccain-legacy/","name":"John McCain 'Set an Example of Working Across the Aisle,' Says Hillary Clinton"}}]}] ```