Sen. John McCain, one of the senior statesmen of the GOP, said Thursday that
President Obama's policies are "directly responsible" for the devastating Orlando nightclub terror attack that left 49 dead and dozens more injured.
McCain made the comments to a group of reporters in a Senate hallway and was responding a question about gun control, a particularly contentious issue since the Orlando attack, which was carried out with a legally purchased rifle. The perpetrator of the attack had pledged his allegiance to a number of Islamist terror groups, including ISIS, which is also known as ISIL.
"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," McCain said. When pressed about how the Obama was "directly responsible" for the attack, McCain doubled down on blaming the president's foreign policy.
"Directly responsible because he pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America, it's a matter of record," McCain said, according to an MSNBC reporter. "So he is directly responsible."
Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old shooter, pledged loyalty to the leader of the Islamic State during a 911 call made while the hostage standoff at the club was ongoing. According to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Mateen also posted on Facebook the day of the shooting pledging allegiance to the group’s and claiming that the shooting was “vengeance” for airstrikes.
Officials have said that they have not found any signs that Mateen was directly tied to any kind of network, and the FBI said this week that it remains unclear which extremist group he supported. While he referenced the Islamic State multiple times on Sunday, Mateen has also made comments in recent years claiming that he had ties to al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, two opposing terrorist groups that have clashed repeatedly in Syria and that both predate the Obama administration. He has also referenced the brothers who carried out the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon.
To be clear, these groups named by Mateen are not allies. The Islamic State and al-Qaeda both derive their theology from an extreme view of Sunni Islamism, but in practical terms the pair split in 2014, with the more established al-Qaeda publicly disavowing the actions of the more extreme Islamic State. Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, often fights the Islamic State in the Syrian conflict. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is a Shiite Islamist group. In Syria, it supports the government of Bashar al-Assad, effectively meaning it fights both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Comey suggested Monday that Mateen may have not understood the distinctions among the groups. Relatives have given mixed reports about the level of Mateen’s religiosity, with some suggesting he preferred working out to studying religion. He attended the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, though he is said to have rarely spoken. His Afghan father has filmed videos that appeared to offer support for the Taliban, a fundamentalist movement that also opposes the Islamic State, though his messages also were sometimes incoherent.
McCain’s statements offer a troubling look into the influence Donald Trump’s anti-intellectualism is wreaking on even the most trusted and respected stewards of the GOP (though McCain admittedly lost a lot of credibility for introducing the nation and world to Sarah Palin).
When pressed by reporters about his statement (specifically about the implication that Obama is “directly responsible) McCain added, “He pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked, and there would be attacks on the United States of America. It’s a matter of record, so he is directly responsible.”
And just like that, McCain demonstrated that he either doesn’t keep abreast of national security briefings or he’s yet another war hawk seeking to use a home grown homophobic terrorist to advance his warmongering agenda.
McCain made the comments to a group of reporters in a Senate hallway and was responding a question about gun control, a particularly contentious issue since the Orlando attack, which was carried out with a legally purchased rifle. The perpetrator of the attack had pledged his allegiance to a number of Islamist terror groups, including ISIS, which is also known as ISIL.
"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," McCain said. When pressed about how the Obama was "directly responsible" for the attack, McCain doubled down on blaming the president's foreign policy.
"Directly responsible because he pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America, it's a matter of record," McCain said, according to an MSNBC reporter. "So he is directly responsible."
Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old shooter, pledged loyalty to the leader of the Islamic State during a 911 call made while the hostage standoff at the club was ongoing. According to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Mateen also posted on Facebook the day of the shooting pledging allegiance to the group’s and claiming that the shooting was “vengeance” for airstrikes.
Officials have said that they have not found any signs that Mateen was directly tied to any kind of network, and the FBI said this week that it remains unclear which extremist group he supported. While he referenced the Islamic State multiple times on Sunday, Mateen has also made comments in recent years claiming that he had ties to al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, two opposing terrorist groups that have clashed repeatedly in Syria and that both predate the Obama administration. He has also referenced the brothers who carried out the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon.
To be clear, these groups named by Mateen are not allies. The Islamic State and al-Qaeda both derive their theology from an extreme view of Sunni Islamism, but in practical terms the pair split in 2014, with the more established al-Qaeda publicly disavowing the actions of the more extreme Islamic State. Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, often fights the Islamic State in the Syrian conflict. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is a Shiite Islamist group. In Syria, it supports the government of Bashar al-Assad, effectively meaning it fights both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Comey suggested Monday that Mateen may have not understood the distinctions among the groups. Relatives have given mixed reports about the level of Mateen’s religiosity, with some suggesting he preferred working out to studying religion. He attended the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, though he is said to have rarely spoken. His Afghan father has filmed videos that appeared to offer support for the Taliban, a fundamentalist movement that also opposes the Islamic State, though his messages also were sometimes incoherent.
McCain’s statements offer a troubling look into the influence Donald Trump’s anti-intellectualism is wreaking on even the most trusted and respected stewards of the GOP (though McCain admittedly lost a lot of credibility for introducing the nation and world to Sarah Palin).
When pressed by reporters about his statement (specifically about the implication that Obama is “directly responsible) McCain added, “He pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked, and there would be attacks on the United States of America. It’s a matter of record, so he is directly responsible.”
And just like that, McCain demonstrated that he either doesn’t keep abreast of national security briefings or he’s yet another war hawk seeking to use a home grown homophobic terrorist to advance his warmongering agenda.
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