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Arizona Sen. John McCain said in the battle of isolationists and realists, the isolionalists are winning.

McCains comments came during a podcast with David Axelrod, the former senior advisor for President Barack Obama and current senior political commentator for CNN.

After Axelrod asked McCain about relations with Mexico, McCain responded by saying that the finance minister of Mexico told him that the country does more business with Arizona than it does with Spain. He warned of a potential for dire consequences if the United States were to cut off border trade between Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora.

Im telling you that you would have a serious and deep recession, McCain told Axelrod. There are a couple 100-thousandjobs that are directlynot indirectly, but directlyrelated to our trade with Mexico. By the way, if we continue to do this poisoning of the environmentbetween the United States and Mexico, they will elect a far-left president and you think we have problems with Mexico now.

Besides relations with Mexico, Axelrod asked McCain a number of questions on a variety of issues including immigration, the possible Russian influence on the elections, and attacks on the press and fake news.

Asked if McCain has had communication with President Donald Trump regarding his number of concerns, the senator said he had two brief phone conversations with the president, but hes talked to people around him, including his national security team and the vice president.

On immigration, McCain said that he believes there needs to be immigration reform because, You are never going to have 11 million in the country illegally without having some tough, hard path to to citizenship.

He added that the border needed to be secured and enforced, and saidtheres a flood of Mexican manufactured heroin that is coming into the United States that is killing people.

I think sooner or later we are going to have to address it, and I dont know what this presidents priorities are, McCain said. But if he said that we have to, Build a Wall, which I take in the most figurative sense not literally build a wall, but at the same time, lets do immigration reform with E-Verifywhere you have to have documentation that proves you are in the country legally.Where we enforce the border. Where we let STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) studentsstay in this country. Where you provide people a long hard path to citizenship. Those kinds of things could all be put into a package, and I would hope the president would consider it.

Besides immigration and relations with Mexico, McCain also talked about possible ties the Russian governmenthad with the election, in which he said are certain fundamentals of the rule of law and one of them is the freedom tolegitimately elect leadership.

If you destroy that, then you have destroyed democracy, McCain said. Its one thing to destroya building with a bomb and inflict damage. But if you destroy the fundamentals of a free and open society, which is what democracy is all about, you inflict heavydamage.

McCain has been vocal about the need for a bipartisan congressional committee to investigate any and all possible leaks from claims that Trump said Obama had wiretapped his New York office, to possible collusion between Trump campaign officialsand the Russian government to fix the election.

Axelrod asked McCain if an American citizen was found to be working with the Russians to interfere with the election, should they be tried for treason?

McCain responded by saying: I think you would have to gauge the circumstances. Its one thing to have a conversation, its another thing to plot together. I think it would be something that individual would have to be held accountable.

McCain, who was held as a prisonerof war during the Vietnam War, said during his capture he missed reading information that was free and decensored. Its something that he added is under attack today with the emergence of fake news and the questioning the credibility of ligament news organization.

I was on with Chuck Todd and I said, Look, I hate you. I hate Meet the Press. But the fact iswithout a legitimate press and a respected media in this country, then you have destroyedthe real important part of the press, McCain said. Its not an accident that its a part of our Bill or Rights. Because you have to have a media to watch what governments do. You can appoint all the judges and all of that, but its the media that informs the American people. Now with this false media,Im really very concerned about Americans receiving unbiased, objectiveviews on the issues.

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McCain calls for immigration reform, Russian leak investigation - KTAR.com