Ailing John McCain is ‘chatty’ and ‘walking around,’ relative says

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain’s son-in-law says the Arizona Republican is “talking, he’s chatty and he’s walking around” as he battles brain cancer.

Ben Domenech said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that McCain is “very grateful for the chances and fortune that he’s experienced in life. He’s reflecting at the end on a lot of different things.”

Domenech publishes the online political and cultural magazine The Federalist. He’s married to McCain’s daughter Meghan.

The 81-year-old senator was diagnosed in July with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.

Domenech says, “We appreciate all of the support that we’ve been given by a lot of different folks who have come out and met with him over the past couple of weeks.”

McCain left Washington in December and hasn’t yet been able to return.

Visits from family, friends

McCain has been receiving a stream of visitors and good wishes at his Arizona ranch as he confronts the aftermath of brain cancer treatment and surgery.

Former Vice President Joe Biden sat with McCain for 90 minutes last Sunday, according to people close to both men. Biden followed McCain’s closest friends, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and retired Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who visited McCain at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix two weeks ago.

McCain, 81, had hoped to return to the Senate, where he’s served since 1987. He has been unable to do so after cancer treatment and surgery for an intestinal infection last month.

Despite that, he’s finished work on a new book being released May 22, “The Restless Wave.” And he continued to advocate for a return to the days when partisans could disagree without demonizing each other.

“I’d like to see us recover our sense that we’re more alike than different,” McCain said in audio excerpts from his book reported by National Public Radio.

McCain has amplified his call for more civil politics since his diagnosis in July with glioblastoma. It is the same rare and aggressive brain cancer that felled his friend, Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, at age 77 in 2009, and Biden’s son Beau at 46 in 2015.

McCain hasn’t been seen in public since December, just before he was hospitalized for a viral infection at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Maryland. He then returned home to Arizona to recover, do physical therapy and continue cancer treatment at the Mayo Clinic. On December 17, his office issued a news release saying he was looking forward to returning to Washington in January.

McCain did not return.

Staying at family retreat in Sedona

He has primarily been staying at his family retreat south of Sedona, Arizona, a sprawling and secluded ranch house along tree-lined Oak Creek where he loves to have family gatherings and barbecue for friends.

His daughter, Meghan, was married there in November to Domenech. The senator has been known to lead nature tours featuring his extensive knowledge of dozens of species of birds on the property.

McCain’s family and staff have kept news of his condition and treatment private, with his office routinely saying it has no new information to share. In mid-April, it was announced that he had been hospitalized for intestinal surgery needed to stem an infection related to diverticulitis, a condition where the colon develops small bulges that can sometimes become infected.