After Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called Tea Party stalwart Rep. Louie Gohmert “a person of no intelligence” in an interview on NBC Nightly News on Wednesday, the back and forth between the two continued Thursday with Gohmert suggesting that McCain “would be better off with 'no intelligence.'”

In a statement to The Daily Beast, Gohmert said:

"Obviously, Senator McCain would be better off with ‘no intelligence’ since he does not know the Syrian opposition he met with is infested with al Qaeda and terrorist kidnappers. His ‘intelligence’ even caused him to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt that burned churches and killed Christians, as the senator stood against the will of the massive majority of Egyptians including moderate Muslims, Christians, and secularists who demanded the Muslim Brotherhood extremist persecutions must end."

The spat started when Gohmert accused McCain of supporting al Qaeda at the Values Voter Summit, a gathering of evangelical activists on Friday. McCain’s office initially “declined to dignify Gohmert’s comment with a response.” However, when asked about it during an interview with NBC Nightly News about the debt deal on Wednesday, McCain dismissed Gohmert’s comments, saying, "Sometimes those are, comments like that are made out of malice, but if someone has no intelligence, I don't view it as being a malicious statement. You can't respond to that kind of thing."