The White House declined to take the debate on John McCain's comments on the shooting in Orlando. | Getty White House brushes off McCain's attack on Obama

The White House said on Friday that President Barack Obama is “not going to be distracted by small things” like Sen. John McCain’s comments Thursday assigning blame to Obama for last weekend’s terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida.

McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters on Capitol Hill that Obama is “directly responsible” for the shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub in which 49 people were killed early Sunday morning. The senator blamed the president’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq for the growth of the Islamic State, the militant group to which the Orlando shooter pledged allegiance during his attack.


In response to those comments, White House deputy press secretary Jennifer Friedman told reporters accompanying the president to New Mexico aboard Air Force One that “we’re not going to be distracted by small things.” Friedman’s response was similar to one earlier this week from press secretary Josh Earnest, who said “it's important not to get distracted by things that are so small,” when asked about insinuations from Donald Trump that Obama is sympathetic to the Islamic State.

McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, quickly walked back his comments in subsequent interviews and in a statement released just hours after his initial remarks.

“I misspoke," the statement read. "I did not mean to imply that the President was personally responsible. I was referring to President Obama’s national security decisions, not the President himself.”

Even as he backed away from them, the Arizona senator’s comments prompted criticism from congressional Democrats. Rep. Adam Schiff of California said the remarks “sounded a lot more like Donald Trump than John McCain,” and Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona accused McCain of losing a step after decades in office.

"It's difficult to imagine the old John McCain being this reckless with something so serious,” said Kirkpatrick, who is running to unseat McCain from the Senate this November. “John McCain has changed after 33 years in Washington."