Fran Townsend recounts mentor John McCain's advice of "country first"
While many are familiar with the late Sen. John McCain's motto, "Country First," that conviction was a personal lesson for Fran Townsend, a former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush and CBS News senior national security analyst. She told CBS News that McCain, whom she calls a mentor and friend, was her first call when she needed advice.
"Interestingly, it was May of 2017, I was asked, invited down to Washington to be interviewed for the FBI director's job," Townsend recalled. "And look, there had been a good deal of scratchiness between the senator and [President Trump] and I am an incredibly loyal friend. And so I wouldn't go down without talking to him. I wasn't sure I would go down at all."
Townsend called McCain and told him what was going on.
"And I said, 'What should I do?' And without hesitation the senator said to me, 'You're going to go.' I said, 'But I don't want you to think that would be disloyal to you.' He said, 'Don't be ridiculous. It's not about me and, by the way,' he reminded me, 'it's not about you. It's about the country,'" she said.
McCain, a military hero and prisoner of war in Vietnam who went on to become a "maverick" Republican senator, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in July 2017. On Friday, his family said McCain had chosen to discontinue treatment. The senator died Saturday at the age of 81, surrounded by his wife, Cindy, and family.
Townsend said she visited McCain's ranch in Arizona several times this year. Asked how the family is doing, Townsend said, "Cindy [McCain] had been extraordinary. She has been by his side, you know, every day. She has been his caregiver, his advocate, she's been the rock of the family. But it doesn't matter that you expect it. This is, of course, going to be a difficult time for everyone in the family."
McCain believed "you had to live your life with courage," Townsend said, but that didn't mean he was without mistakes. "That meant an idealism that was coupled with action, a willingness to act."
She referenced a moment where a woman at a 2008 presidential campaign rally called McCain's opponent, Barack Obama, an "Arab."
"No, ma'am," McCain responded, grabbing the microphone from her. "He's a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that's what this campaign is all about."
Townsend reflected on that moment, calling it "vintage McCain."
"That was not about getting votes. That was about doing the right thing in that moment when you were presented with the opportunity," Townsend said.