United States Republican Senator, John McCain has died on Saturday after battling brain cancer for more than a year. He was 81.

Senator McCain who faced down his captors in a Vietnamese prisoners of war camp, turned his rebellious streak into a 35-year political career that took him to Congress and the Republican presidential nomination.

Born in 1936 in the Panama Canal zone where his father was stationed in the military, McCain was a fearless and outspoken voice on policy and politics to the end, unswerving in his defense of democratic values and unflinching in his criticism of his fellow Republican, President Donald Trump.

He was elected to the Senate from Arizona six times but twice, his quest to be nominated to run for the office of the president of the United States were unsuccessful. When he eventually  clinched the GOP nomination,he was defeated by the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama.

After losing to Obama in an electoral landslide, McCain returned to the Senate determined not to be defined by a failed presidential campaign in which his reputation as a maverick had faded.

In the politics of the moment and in national political debate over the decades, McCain energetically advanced his ideas and punched back hard at critics including President Trump.

A scion of a decorated military family, McCain embraced his role as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, pushing for aggressive US military intervention against Islamist terrorist organizations.

McCain’s breaking point with Trump was the release of a lewd audio a month before the election in which Trump said he could kiss and grab women. McCain consequently withdrew his support, saying he would support ‘some good conservative Republican who’s qualified to be president’.

Six months into Trump’s presidency, McCain cast his vote against the GOP health bill, prompting the president to publicly rally against him over the vote. McCain responded by saying that he no longer listened to what Trump had to say.

By then, McCain had disclosed his brain cancer diagnosis and returned to Arizona to seek treatment.

In his final months, McCain did not go quietly, frequently taking jabs at Trump and his policies from his Hidden Valley family retreat in Arizona.

He also opposed the president’s nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and also denounced the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki as a ‘tragic mistake’.

On August 13, Trump signed into law, the $716 billion John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act named in honor of the senator at a military base in New York, without one mention of the Senator.

Over a 31-year Senate tenure, McCain became a standard-bearer for reforming campaign donations and denouncing spending for legislators’ pet projects. He  cultivated a reputation as an independent voice.

During his final years in the Senate, McCain was perhaps the loudest advocate for US military involvement overseas in Iraq, Syria, Libya and other countries ravaged by war.

That often made him a critic of first, Obama and then Trump, and placed him further out of step with the growing isolationism within the GOP.

In October 2017, McCain unleashed some of his most blistering criticism of Trump’s ‘America First” foreign policy . Without mentioning Trump by name, McCain described him as a ‘half-baked’ spurious nationalist who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.

Despite being hospitalized for most of the later days of his life, McCain, who helped plan his own funeral had severally told people that he did not want President Trump to attend his funeral service.

However, Trump seems to have buried the hatched by being among the first persons to express his sympathy over McCain’s demise, tweeting: “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!”

Canadian Prime Minister, JustinTrudeau has also sympathized with Americans over the Senator’s death, describing him as ‘an American patriot and hero whose sacrifices for his country, and lifetime of public service, were an inspiration to millions. Canadians join Americans tonight in celebrating his life and mourning his passing’.

His wife, Cindy McCain followed suit. She tweeted: “My heart is broken. I am so lucky to have lived the adventure of loving this incredible man for 38 years. He passed the way he lived, on his own terms, surrounded by the people he loved, in the place he loved best.”