To Jeff Flake, it was a "privilege of a lifetime" to have known John McCain and to have been the "other senator from Arizona."
Arizona's junior senator joined 12 News shortly after the announcement of Sen. John McCain's death and shared his thoughts on his fellow senator and friend.
McCain died Saturday at his home near Cottonwood, Arizona, at the age of 81. His death came 13 months after he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Flake said it was "just an incredible experience" to have spent some of McCain's final moments with his family.
"It was wonderful to be there with the family," he said. "It was just wonderful to be there and talk to Cindy and Meghan and all those gathered."
Flake said he'll miss McCain's friendship the most.
"He was not just a wonderful statesman and towering figure in the Senate. But he was a true and good friend and I'll miss campaigning with him and traveling around the state and hearing his jokes and wisecracks," Flake said. "It was just a privilege of a lifetime to have known him and to have been the other senator from Arizona."
As for his legacy, Flake said McCain's legacy "is country before party. and to serve a cause greater than your self interest. He wrote about that passionately and he lived it."
"He would have had a full life had he retired when he got home from Vietnam, but instead he served the country well for another 30 years" Flake said.
McCain’s Arizona: A connection that goes far beyond politics
They're touching words from Arizona's "other senator" that he echoed in a piece he wrote for the Washington Post published Saturday., titled "I am grateful for John McCain."
Flake writes:
"I’ve never known Washington without John McCain. I started on Capitol Hill more than 30 years ago interning for Dennis DeConcini, “the other senator from Arizona,” which is what they call every Arizona senator not named McCain. When I eventually became the other senator from Arizona, too, I came to understand that it’s a title that comes with being in the shadow of a giant. It was like having an older brother to protect me. The guy nobody wants to mess with."
Flake said McCain taught the country, and him, the "the value of standing alone to do what is right."
Flake also wrote:
We may never see his like again, but it is his reflection of America that we need now more than ever. He was far too self-deprecating to ever have thought of himself as just such a towering figure, so I will go ahead and say it. He showed us who we are and who we can be when we are at our best. And he devoted his life to service and to the exalted idea of America that was bigger and better than him. Bigger than us all.
And in an America without McCain, who Flake said was the conscious of the Senate when it came to having civility, Flake said he's hopeful, as was McCain, that the country can return to having that civility.
"Today, I am grateful for John McCain. I’m grateful for the long and meaningful miles he traveled, and for having the privilege of having traveled just a few of those miles with him," Flake wrote.