There has been some talk in political circles that the conservative Tea Party movement could eventually field its own presidential candidate, but McCain was doubtful.

“The Tea Party was a movement, not an organization, as we know. And so they’ve kind of receded. There was never any permanency to them,” he said.

“But I think that you could see a national movement, that there’s a group of people saying ‘look we may disagree on some specific issues but we’re not one of them,'” he said.