“Tell it to me straight...”
What a clown. There isn’t a doctor in the world who would soft pedal the delivery of a brain cancer diagnosis.
If McCain actually said that, I guarantee you the docs laughed about how “tough” he was.
When my wife got her diagnosis of stage four breast cancer, the doctor simply said, "this is cancer." She didn't cry, she didn't moan, she didn't cry out to the heavens, or any of that histrionic nonsense. She simply said, "what now?" and accepted it for what it was.
It was pretty much the same with me when they told me I had a tumor on my kidney. I had just suffered an aortic dissection, and compared with that, a bit of cancer didn't seem that bad.
Ah, but McCain ... such a hero! "Tell it to me straight!"