Sen. Dick Durbin Richard (Dick) Joseph DurbinThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by Facebook - Trump previews SCOTUS nominee as 'totally brilliant' Feinstein 'surprised and taken aback' by suggestion she's not up for Supreme Court fight Grand jury charges no officers in Breonna Taylor death MORE (D-Ill.) on Sunday praised John McCain John Sidney McCainAnalysis: Biden victory, Democratic sweep would bring biggest boost to economy The Memo: Trump's strengths complicate election picture Mark Kelly: Arizona Senate race winner should be sworn in 'promptly' MORE for what Durbin called “uncommon decency” during his time as a senator, pointing to moments such as McCain's defense of former President Obama on the campaign trail.

Durbin said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the decency McCain displayed is “unfortunately on short supply in the American political scene.”

Durbin said “very few expected” McCain to defend Obama when he did during the 2008 campaign, referencing the moment McCain shut down a supporter for pushing a racist conspiracy theory about Obama. The supporter said during a town hall event in October 2008 that Obama was “an Arab.”

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“No, ma’am,” McCain said. “He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that just I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what the campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].”

Video of that interaction has gone viral since McCain’s death Saturday.

“Contrast that with what we went through in the ‘lock her up’ chants of the last election,” Durbin said Sunday.

Durbin also pointed to McCain speaking out against white supremacists who rallied last year in Charlottesville, Va., at the “Unite the Right” rally, saying McCain “made it clear he considered them to be cowards.” McCain at the time called on President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE, who blamed both sides for the violence at the rally, to say there’s no “moral equivalency” between white nationalists and counterprotesters.

Durbin also praised McCain for his views on immigration, something Durbin said is “not an easy issue for anybody, certainly not a conservative Republican from Arizona.”

McCain died on Saturday at 81 after a fight with brain cancer. His death has prompted an outpouring of tributes from both Democrats like Durbin and Republicans.