UPDATE - White House Flag Lowered To Half-Staff In Honor Of Late Senator McCain - Official

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th August, 2018) The administration of US President Donald Trump lowered the White House flag to half-staff to honor late Senator John McCain, Dan Scavino Jr., the White House director of social media, said.

"This evening, the White House flag has been lowered to half-staff in honor of Senator John McCain," Scavino Jr. wrote on Twitter late on Saturday.

McCain died at the age of 81 of brain cancer on the same day.

Many officials inside and outside the United States expressed condolences to McCain's family and honored the late senator. Notably, tribute was paid by many military officials, who praised McCain as the veteran of the Vietnam War.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis called McCain a man "who steadfastly represented the best ideals of our country."

"As a Naval Officer and defiant prisoner of war, John McCain stood with his brothers-in-arms until they returned home together," Mattis said in a published statement.

The six-term US Senator and former prisoner of war in Vietnam was diagnosed with the rare and aggressive brain cancer in 2017. On Friday, the politicians family said he had decided to halt his treatment.

McCain was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 1982, and, after two serving two terms, was elected to the US Senate in 1986.

Since 2015, he worked as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The politician ran as the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the 2008 US election against then-Senator Barack Obama, who won the vote.