Story highlights McCain argued that Obama's failure to adequately address terror threats led to the rise of ISIS

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman immediately blasted McCain's remarks

Washington (CNN) Sen. John McCain said Thursday that President Barack Obama was "directly responsible" for the massacre at the gay nightclub in Orlando, though McCain later said he "misspoke."

"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 on Capitol Hill.

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 said later he "misspoke," using a statement to clarify that it was not the President himself who was "personally responsible," but his "security decisions."

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