Bill Theobald

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain said Thursday that President Obama was "directly responsible" for the mass shooting in Orlando because he failed to check the growth of the Islamic State terrorist group.

Democrats expressed outrage at McCain's remark and the Arizona Republican responded with a statement clarifying that the president's national security decisions led to the mass shooting at the gay nightclub in Florida.

He said Obama's decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of the Islamic State terrorist group.

"I and others have long warned that the failure of the President’s policy to deny (the Islamic State) safe haven would allow the terrorist organization to inspire, plan, direct or conduct attacks on the United States and Europe as they have done in Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino and now Orlando.”

McCain made his original comment to reporters in Washington while Obama was in Orlando visiting with the families of those killed in Sunday's attack and some of the survivors.

Obama, Biden pay tribute to Orlando shooting victims

Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured more than 50 in the attack. In calls he made during the attack, Mateen said he was a supporter of the Islamic State.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, called McCain's initial comment a "grievous mistake" and a "gross disservice to the president." He told CNN he wished McCain "would retract it entirely."

McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, has been a frequent critic of the president's foreign policy. McCain is running for re-election to the Senate.

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, the Democrat challenging McCain, charged that he had crossed "a dangerous line in comments that undermine our commander in chief on national security issues — at the very moment the president was in Orlando to comfort victims' families."

"It's difficult to imagine the old John McCain being this reckless with something so serious. John McCain has changed after 33 years in Washington."