WASHINGTON — (CNN) Sen. John McCain said Thursday that President Barack Obama was “directly responsible” for the massacre at the gay nightclub in Orlando.
“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda 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, thinking that conflicts end just because you leave.
So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies,” McCain told reporters.
The Arizona Republican, who has been sharply critical of the President’s foreign policy strategy, argued that his failure to adequately address terror threats led to the rise of ISIS.
McCain later clarified in a tweet, “To clarify, I was referring to Pres Obama’s national security decisions that have led to rise of #ISIL, not to the President himself.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s spokesman immediately blasted McCain’s remarks, saying, “Senator McCain’s unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Republicans are puppets of Donald Trump.”
Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 49 people at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub over the weekend, pledged allegiance to ISIS during his attack.
Obama is in Orlando on Thursday, meeting with family and friends of those killed and wounded in Sunday’s attack.
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