Sen. John McCain reveals what really happened in the James Comey hearing

Alia Beard Rau | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Sen. McCain questions James Comey Arizona Sen. John McCain questions former FBI Director James Comey during Senate testimony on June 8, 2017.

PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain confused and worried viewers in June with an erratic line of questioning of former FBI Director James Comey during a Senate hearing.

McCain, R-Ariz., later said his line of questioning may have gone "over people's heads" and then attributed the performance to staying up the night before to watch a late Arizona Diamondbacks game.

Weeks later, following sudden cranial surgery to remove a blood clot and news of an aggressive brain cancer diagnoses, some wondered if that could have been the cause.

But in a new interview with Esquire, McCain now turns the blame on technology — and his good friend Sen. Lindsey Graham.

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During the June hearing, McCain seemed to allege there was a double standard between Comey's treatment of Hillary Clinton and of President Trump, and he questioned why the FBI was still investigating possible Russian connections to the 2016 election after concluding the investigation into Clinton.

Comey admitted during the questioning to being "confused" by the questions.

At one point, McCain, 81, referred to Comey as "President Comey."

Social media exploded following the bewildering line of questioning, with many wondering about McCain's health.

According to the official Twitter Data account, McCain's questioning of Comey was the No. 1 most tweeted moment of the hearing, which generated 3.6 million tweets.

In a story published Friday in Esquire by reporter David Usborne, McCain offers a new explanation of what happened during that June hearing.

According to the story, said seconds before it was McCain's turn to ask questions, an aide handed him a cellphone with an email (McCain in the interview calls it an app) from Graham asking McCain to ask Comey a question.

This is what McCain told Esquire:

I had these questions laid out that I had discussed and, honest to God, two minutes before it was my turn, [the aide] hands me this app from Lindsey ... I was looking at it and, naturally, the message fades. I think, 'What the f...am I going to do here? ... I can't tell you how important our relationship is, and I knew this must be important. So I started out trying to remember what was on the app, and, anyway, to make a long story short, I f...ed it up ... it was a colossal screw-up. That was such an important hearing. That wasn't just an ordinary Senate hearing."

Contributing: Daniel Nowicki, The Arizona Republic. Follow Alia Beard Rau on Twitter: @aliarau