Sen. John McCain charged on Thursday that President Obama is “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in Orlando because his policy toward Iraq and Syria set the stage for the rise of the so-called Islamic State. Not long after, the former GOP presidential nominee watered down his startling accusation.

“I misspoke. I did not mean to imply that the president was personally responsible,” McCain said in a written statement issued by his office. “I was referring to President Obama’s national security decisions, not the president himself.”

The Associated Press and other news outlets reported the Arizona senator’s initial accusation, which came even as Obama met in Orlando with relatives and friends of the nearly 50 people killed at a gay nightclub over the weekend.

Since losing the 2008 race to Obama, McCain has been one of the chief critics of the president’s foreign policy, notably accusing him of abandoning Iraq to deadly chaos by not fighting harder to leave a residual force there. The White House blames Iraqi politicians who refused to grant U.S. troops immunity from local prosecution, effectively forcing them out. The Administration also blames former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for plunging the country into renewed sectarian tensions while hollowing out its military. The administration says this set the stage for the Islamic State to push almost to the gates of Baghdad. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has since lost considerable territory but remains enormously potent.

“Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaida 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,” McCain told reporters in a Capitol hallway. “So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies,” McCain said.

The senator largely stuck with that analysis in his written statement.

Story continues

“President Obama’s decision to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of ISIL,” he said. “I and others have long warned that the failure of the president’s policy to deny ISIL 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.”

White House officials declined to comment on the record.

McCain has a bit of a history of saying impolitic, unusual or straightforwardly incorrect things when he faces a reelection fight, as he does this year.

The senator said in April that “this may be the race of my life” because of Hispanic voter anger at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to a recording of remarks obtained by Politico.

During his 2010 reelection race, McCain attempted to jettison years of making political hay from his image as a straight-talker willing to buck his party when his principles demanded it.

“I never considered myself a maverick,” he told Newsweek. “I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities.” It fell to fact-checkers at PolitiFact to point out that McCain had, in fact, very publicly considered himself a maverick.

In that same campaign, McCain abandoned his previous support for a comprehensive immigration overhaul. He shifted to favor a distinctly Trump-sounding attack on people who immigrated to the U.S. illegally, whom he blamed in a political ad for “drug- and human smuggling, home invasions, murder.”

“Complete the danged fence,” McCain said in the commercial, referring to a border barrier.

Democrats immediately exploited McCain’s latest comments to tie him to Trump, whose first reactions to the Orlando shooting included dark insinuations about Obama.

“Senator McCain’s unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Republicans are puppets of Donald Trump,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

Tying him to Trump could be bitterly ironic for McCain, who bears the scars of the torture he suffered after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War. It was nearly a year ago that Trump attacked the former naval aviator’s military career.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said at a conservative forum. “He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Trump, too, soon backtracked on the provocative claim.

______

Related slideshows:

Slideshow: Funerals and memorials for slain Orlando victims >>>

Slideshow: Obama visits families of the Orlando massacre victims >>>

Slideshow: Victims of the Florida nightclub shooting >>>

Slideshow: Front page coverage of the Orlando mass shooting >>>

Slideshow: World reacts to Orlando mass shooting >>>

Slideshow: Shooting rampage at Florida nightclub >>>