U.S. Senator John McCain has vowed to return to work in Washington soon, sounding upbeat after receiving a diagnosis of brain cancer.
"I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support -- unfortunately for my sparring partners in Congress, I’ll be back soon, so stand-by!" McCain tweeted on July 20.
McCain was making phone calls from his home in Phoenix, Arizona, to stay abreast of congressional matters.
Doctors said that McCain, 80, has glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer associated with a blood clot that was removed from his head last week.
The news triggered a wave of support for the Republican, a Vietnam War veteran who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"Senator John McCain has always been a fighter," President Donald Trump said in a July 19 statement.
"Melania and I send our thoughts and prayers to Senator McCain, Cindy, and their entire family. Get well soon," Trump added.
"John McCain is an American hero & one of the bravest fighters I've ever known," former President Barack Obama, who defeated McCain for the presidency in 2008, wrote on Twitter. "Cancer doesn't know what it's up against. Give it hell, John."
Numerous other politicians, including lawmakers, praised McCain as a "hero" while offering statements of sympathy.
Senator Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said the flood of "bipartisan respect and love for John McCain as he faces this cancer battle reminds us that, after all the meanness, there is a human side to politicians."
"Count this Democrat in John McCain's corner," he said.
McCain was the U.S. Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2008 and is a longstanding hawk on matters involving the U.S. military and Russia. A Navy pilot, he was shot down over Vietnam and held as a prisoner for 5 ½ years.