Senator and Man Who Picked Sarah Palin to Be His Running Mate John McCain is making headlines for all the wrong reasons today.
The senator from Arizona spoke to reporters this afternoon where he said President Obama is "directly responsible" for the shooting in Orlando, a claim that becomes progressively more stupid when you follow McCain's entire train of thought.
From the Associated Press:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. John McCain says President Barack Obama is "directly responsible" for the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, because Obama has allowed the growth of the Islamic State group on his watch.
McCain — who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election — made the comment to reporters Thursday while Obama was in Orlando visiting with the families of those killed in Sunday's attack and some of the survivors.
McCain went on to say that prematurely pulling troops out of Iraq and not invading Syria led to the rise of ISIS, but we'll come back to that in a moment.
The Orlando shooter had no documented ties to ISIS aside from his last-minute pledge of loyalty which he seemingly hoped would earn him notoriety on Facebook. Really. CIA Director John Brennan actually spoke to the Senate Intelligence Committee today and said they've uncovered no evidence that the shooter had ties to ISIS.
By all accounts ISIS would not exist today if we hadn't invaded Iraq to begin with in a war which John McCain was a chief cheerleader for. Does John McCain hold himself "directly responsible" for the Orlando shooting?
Given that the Orlando shooter had no connection to ISIS, the latter half of McCain's argument against President Obama becomes a misnomer even if you agree with McCain that the president's actions allowed ISIS to grow. The shooter still wasn't ISIS.
There's no there, there.