It's a speech that touched a nerve, inspiring some and repelling others as U.S. Sen. John McCain warned about "half-baked, spurious nationalism."

  • Sen. John McCain presented with Liberty Medal
  • McCain: Those who want to find scapegoats are unpatriotic
  • McCain's speech created a strong reaction in the political world

On Monday night, the Arizona senator warned about "half-baked, spurious nationalism" and the direction the country may be headed as he accepted a prestigious award at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Former Vice President Joe Biden presented McCain with the Liberty Medal for his lifelong service to the country.

In addition to recalling his more than two decades of Navy service and his imprisonment in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp, McCain took a moment to go a step further than the night’s other speakers, who lamented what many described as a fractured political climate.

It's McCain's passionate speech as he took the podium that's creating a buzz.

"To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain 'the last best hope of earth' for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history,” McCain said.

While he mentioned no one by name, the Los Angeles Times wrote that the excerpt was a "thinly veiled shot" at former strategist Steve Bannon and others who push the “America First” nationalism.

Online, some cheered, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.



Others were not as moved.