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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. spoke on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 28. McCain today said President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., in which a gunman killed 49 people because he allowed the growth of the Islamic State on his watch.
• Obama offering sympathy but no easy answers in Orlando
WASHINGTON » Republican Sen. John McCain is walking back comments that President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the attack in Orlando, Fla., earlier this week.
McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, made the comment today while Obama was in Orlando visiting with the families of those killed in Sunday’s attack and some of the survivors.
“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaida went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures, utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq,” a visibly angry McCain told reporters in the Capitol as the Senate debated a spending bill.
“So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies,” McCain said.
The gunman, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured more than 50 in the attack at a gay nightclub. The 29-year-old Muslim born in New York made calls during the attack saying he was a supporter of the Islamic State. But he also spoke about an affiliate of al-Qaida and Hezbollah, both of which are IS enemies.
In a statement, McCain walked back those comments, saying that he “misspoke.”
“I did not mean to imply that the president was personally responsible,” McCain said. “I was referring to President Obama’s national security decisions, not the president himself.”
“As I have said, President Obama’s decision to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of (the Islamic State terror group),” McCain said. “I and others have long warned that the failure of the president’s policy to deny ISIL safe haven would allow the terrorist organization to inspire, plan, direct or conduct attacks on the United States and Europe as they have done in Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino and now Orlando.”
In the aftermath of the shooting, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused Obama of putting U.S. enemies ahead of Americans. Trump also has suggested that Obama himself might sympathize with radical elements.
Democrats criticized Trump and some Republicans tried to distance themselves from his remarks.
McCain is seeking a sixth Senate term from Arizona and is locked in a tight race.
Democrats quickly pounced on McCain’s criticism.
Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said McCain’s “unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Republicans are puppets of Donald Trump.”
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The Associated Press and Tribune News Service contributed to this story.
This opinion come from the a person selecting Sarah Palin as a VP candidate? Maybe he spends too much time in the Arizona desert without water.
“Make America Great Again” This is a good start. Trump 2016
“Replace Logic with Political Slogans” Trump 2016
“Hope and Change” worked for Obama.
McCain is another Republican who speaks before he thinks. Winner!
He wants to be Politically Correct. Nough said
One’s who spout “Make America Great Again” are sad, pathetic souls who somehow have the perception that America is not great? When did that happen? When has America stopped being the greatest Nation in the world? Sure there’s things that always can be improved and made better, but isn’t that what makes America great? That we are probably the only nation that confronts inequities and wrongs and move to correct it? We are great because we see beyond narrow- minded individuals and groups like Sarge22 and his/their pathetic, sad mentality. Sarge22, if you think America is not great now, I really pity your miserable state.
It happened when Obama became President.
Right answer although it was an easy question. You see what comes out when the ox raises its tail.
lespark and sarge are so predictably pathetic. Would you like to expound on your miserable lives since Obama came into power? Spout all the hate and miserable cries you want because you actually prove why America is still great. It can overcome the poisons like you two turds.
Full Definition of bigot. : a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.
This is his pathetic way of trying to get re-elected – he has an unusually strong primary opponent, the tea party’s Kelli Ward, for his Senate seat. She’s a big fan of Cliven Bundy. So McCain is trying to be more right-wing than she is.
There’s that, plus his advancing dementia…
Yes, he was born in 1937. Nothing against the Senator but he is vulnerable. Trump had nothing to do with it.
Agree! Anything he has to say means nothing to most people.
Exactly. He lost all his earned credibility and political capital when he hitched up with one of the most inane uneducated and lazy minds of this century., Ms Palin, and then, after taking a team of derogatory comments from Trump, begrudgingly endorses the Buffon of real estate. Your time has come and gone….
Oh wise one, what is a buffon?
Buffon is what a team of sycophants do to place that heinous orange tan on the Donald– they “buff on”.
Thanks Be careful bad mouthing Ms Palin or you will be labeled a woman hater like Mr Trump.
That assumes Ms. Plain is a woman, which is an awfully large leap to the fairer sex…I think she might be more on the continuum of being a fafa. It’s telling that her kids, all of them, under 30, have three divorces, four kids out of wedlock and nary a college degree, not a single one, not even an AA degree……..
Did you look yourself in the mirror?
Look it up in the dictionary and you’ll see your name and picture.
It’s a cross between a buffoon and a bufo — ugly and poisonous, but at the same time laughable and impotent.
He has good reason for his statement. Obama and Clinton is in denial.
Except for now he takes it back. LOL He is a complete loser.
If you want to see a fall from grace, John McCain is it…
McCain has officially made himself irrelevant.
And he still aligns himself with the party that now embraces Trump…a man who called McCain nothing special…not a war hero…just got press because he was a POW.
He was not a hero. LOL She trash several places and his daddy was always getting out of trouble. He squealed to the enemy when they even threatened to torcher him.
“torcher”
Are you serious?
That’s torture using a torch.
Torture by torch her aka witch burning.
Oh com-on man, you all know what it meant…mockery isn’t necessary when he really meant torture. Just misspelt the word. Move on cuz no one is perfect.
Bad typing today. Couldn’t find my glasses. LOL That was, he.and plane not place.
I don’t know how much embracing is going on in the Republican Party. More like distancing.
Time for Kirkpatrick to replace McCain in the Senate. Hope the people in Arizona rise up and vote him out. Trump will own the GOP. He will soon be saying my party.
As a U.S. Senator and member of Congress, has McCain pursued or pushed for gun control since 1997, after the shoot out in LA with bank robbers using assault rifles in a gun battle with the LA cops? Congress has done the same thing every time there was a mass shooting…a moment of silence for all those that got killed and on with their bickering across the aisle. Congress never ever passed a bill on gun control except in 1993 when they mandated to ban the manufacturing of assault weapons for ten years. That bill never prevented the selling of assault rifles. Senator McCain was too afraid to buck heads with the NRA. Before he points his fingers to the president, he should look at himself in the mirror and ask himself the question…have I pushed for some kind of gun control for all America? As one of the key Senators in Congress, he hasn’t done zilch about gun control except to spit out negative things about the president…poor loser.
Agree!
Yep, he is once: disaffected, antiquated, obsolete, spurned, and out of touch. Hope he gets beat, as he has become entirely ineffective to both parties.
boo, you forgot dementia ridden. Or, maybe that scorching Arizona sun fried any marbles he had left.
Dammit, you’re right.
McCain doesn’t realize that he’s part of the problem that causes these mass shootings. Congress is the governing body of this country and they are able to pass a bill and make it the law of the country and he and the rest of the elected officials have failed to perform their fiduciary duties…preventing crazy people from using assault weapons and causing mass killings. Majority of the time, he has always spoken negatively about the president. Maybe it’s time for him to retire or get beaten in the next election cuz he’s only milking the system and taking up space. Ban all assault weapons from all who own them and the federal government will refund every weapon that is turned in. After the deadline for turn in, anyone caught or known to have an assault weapon in their possession will be prosecuted heavily. There is no need for anyone except the military and law enforcement to be using these weapons
Also, Senator McCain is the largest recipient of monies from the NRA of ANY member of congress…..he needs to be honest with himself.
obama abandoned dr shakil afridi, who positively identified bin laden and who is now languishing in a pakistani prison for aiding the u.s.
clinton abandoned sabrina de sousa,a state department employee falsely accused of kidnapping, to the italian prisons and refuses to even address the issue.
the message is: if you help the u.s., a democrat president and state department will use you and abandon you after the mission.
Trust me…the USG will use and abandon you REGARDLESS of who’s in office.
I agree that Obama with his open borders, let’s bring in refugees and Islam is peaceful rhetoric gave confidence to the killer.
McCain is using this tragedy to boost the military and go to war.tragedy never mind that the U.S. is broke.
The killer was an American born. His parents immigrated when Obama was still in school in Hawaii. How is he to blame? Also, 49 deaths here although terrible is minute vs 5,000 deaths if we stayed in Iraq and invaded Syria. Issis would than move to Africa. I guess we invade and occupy Africa next. McCain is a hawk that doesn’t look at the big picture.
Adam Jentleson’s “unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Democrats are puppets of His Majesty Hussein Obama”.
McCain has more military experience and knowledge of military inaction, than 99% of commenters here.
Could be, but guess he’s conveniently forgotten history —
The withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq began in December 2007 with the end of the Iraq War troop surge of 2007 and was completed by December 2011, bringing an end to the Iraq War. The number of U.S. military forces in Iraq peaked at 170,300 in November 2007.
The withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq was a contentious issue in the United States for much of the 2000s. As the war progressed from its initial invasion phase in 2003 to a nearly decade-long occupation, American public opinion shifted towards favoring a troop withdrawal; in May 2007, 55% of Americans believed that the Iraq War was a mistake, and 51% of registered voters favored troop withdrawal. In late April 2007 Congress passed a supplementary spending bill for Iraq that set a deadline for troop withdrawal but President Bush vetoed this bill, citing his concerns about setting a withdrawal deadline. The Bush Administration later sought an agreement with the Iraqi government, and in 2008 George W. Bush signed the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement. It included a deadline of 31 December 2011, before which “all the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory”. The last U.S. troops left Iraq on 18 December 2011, in accordance with this agreement. US Forces, in the form of air support, resumed operations in Iraq in June 2014, to defend it against ISIL.
This began with his party and US citizenry.
Obankster and Hildabeast and their globalist cronies and backers need to get the hell out of the way and let legitimate representation become the standard of governance.
Sarge, you need to go back to school. You’re as dumb as they come.
Who let you out from under the rock? The New World Order is very upset. Brexit
Yeah, I’d take even Ol’ Man McCain over a washed-up Teahadist.
Surely had knowledge of how to fly a plane but the fact of the matter is, he wasn’t only the one that became a POW and he shouldn’t be treated any better than the rest of the POW’s. Just because he was elected to Congress (because of the attention as a POW) doesn’t make him any better than any American. What has he really accomplished that really stands out as a Senator, but to speak negatively about our president. His military career is over and his experience and knowledge was during the Vietnam era, not about how ISIS is performing today.
To speak negatively about our president is just too easy. Today he said we are safer while the CIA director said ISIS can draw on a “large cadre of Western fighters” that could attack in the U.S. and the terror threat posed by the group remains as dangerous as ever despite efforts to crush it militarily. Kind of reminds me of the Benghazi cover up prior to the last presidential election. Obama the spin master as usual.
Are you simply afraid of everything? It must be terribly exhausting to be a coward.
Word of the Day
Retort
say something in answer to a remark or accusation, typically in a sharp, angry, or wittily incisive manner.
lespark – Thanks for noticing my wit and incisiveness.
You always answer for sarge. Do you agree that he’s incapable of answering for himself? Sure seems that way.
klastri–I’m only afraid of useless angry lawyers.The American people deserve the truth and should listen to the CIA Director and not the lies coming from the White House. Obama is always trying to downplay the threat from Radical Islamic Terrorists. Remember ISIS is a JV team. Really?
McCain has lost his marbles to blame Obama for the mass shooting. The Trump message of hate has infiltrated the Republican Party.
Big mistake for McCain to pull out of Palin. Bigger mistake when he put in.
You an Idi0t McCain. I can say the same about you, it is all your fault cause you lost to Obama cause if you were the president you could have prevented all the tragedies in the U.S. for the last 8 year right.
This guy has had the absolute WORST case of sour grapes since he lost to Obama. Now, he is walking back on it..
…”no fool like an old fool.”
This….from the guy who chose Sarah Palin as his running mate…..
He was in love.
It was Congress and their unwillingness to implement laws that would prohibit terrorists and the mentally ill from owning or purchasing weapons that caused this. McCain and all our elected officials should look in the mirror because that’s where the blame is. Washington is immersed in so much politics that it looks like LA on a bad, smoggy day. They can’t see clearly and have clearly lost touch with the American people. Common sense tells you that we need to make sure guns do not get into the wrong hands. Washington has clearly failed us.
Whoa, even though I think Obama will eventually be judged as one of the worse presidents, ever, I couldn’t say that he was “directly” responsible for what happened. Indirectly, maybe, but not directly.
What?
“I did not mean to imply that the president was personally responsible,” McCain said. “I was referring to President Obama’s national security decisions, not the president himself.”
Did the decisions come from outside Mr. Obama’s body? If so, maybe McCain’s decision to have Palin join him came from outside his body too. Let’s see if he wants to start claiming that now.
““So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies,” McCain said.”
“Questioned on his startling assertion, McCain repeated it: “Directly responsible.”
““I did not mean to imply that the president was personally responsible,” McCain said.”
https://newsofhawaii.com/mccain-obama-directly-responsible-for-orlando-shooting/
McCain has been infected with the Romney Flip Flop Syndrome. Crawl back under your rock, McCain.
Of course, Obama is directly responsible, since he was our President. Just like Bush because terrorists acted the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. Bush was President then.
“acted” is “attacked”
I expect Senator McCain to apologize on his death bed for his choice of Sarah Palin to be his running mate.
Very honorable earlier in his career, but flat out disgraceful in his later years. A sad and pathetic decline.
Indeed,. He has all the features of a Greek tragedy.
Maybe Trump was right? He would have liked him better if he wasn’t captured. You and boo are the antithesis .
So far, Mr. Trump has insulted prisoners of war and soldiers in Iraq who risked their lives distributing cash to keep people from trying to murder our armed forces. This is the loathsome, racist sociopath you support. Your judgement in candidates is terrible. Pleas enjoy congratulating yourself with your choice. It will be even more sweet when Mr. Trump loses in a historic landslide to know that your hopes will be dashed.
word of the day
Retort
say something in answer to a remark or accusation, typically in a sharp, angry, or wittily incisive manner.
And please try and get some sleep.
You are right on that point. I made it in life on my own and did not subjugate my morals to exist in some form of conscripted powers.
You’re taught in the military to “engage brain before putting mouth in gear”. I guess John must’ve forgotten that. He seems to be rather forgetful lately.
I don’t get McCain’s logic. If Obama pulled troops out of Iraq, wouldn’t U.S. enemies stay in Iraq? What would motivate them to move to Syria if there isn’t a U.S. military presence in Iraq?