McCain agreed with the Obama administration that aid to Egypt and Libya should continue. McCain blasts conservatives on foreign aid

Sen. John McCain scolded some conservative Republicans for trying to strip foreign aid from Egypt and Libya after attacks on diplomatic facilities in those countries left a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead.

“Of course I think it would be incredibly foolish,” McCain, an Arizona Republican and leading defense hawk, told reporters Thursday as he left a closed-door Senate Intelligence Committee briefing about Tuesday’s attacks that was attended by CIA Director David Petraeus.


“Only someone who doesn’t understand anything about that part of the world would suggest such idiocy,” he said.

On Thursday, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who serves with McCain on the Armed Services Committee, introduced a resolution calling for the suspension of U.S. foreign aid to Egypt and Libya until Obama can guarantee those governments are providing proper protection to U.S. embassies and personnel.

“When you attack an embassy, you attack America,” Inhofe said.

And Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a tea party favorite, refiled his amendment Thursday that would halt a total of $4 billion a year in U.S. aid to Egypt, Libya and Pakistan — nations that he said have shown aggression toward America. After the killing of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Paul said, that government arrested one of its citizens, Dr. Shakil Afridi, for supplying the U.S. with intelligence that led to the Al Qaeda leader’s whereabouts.

“We give Egypt $3 billion a year and you know what? Egypt can’t protect or won’t protect our embassy,” Paul said on the Senate floor. “Well, Egypt needs to act like our ally if they want to continue to cash our checks.”

Paul has been delaying Senate action this week on a $1 billion Democratic bill to create jobs for veterans. But he said he would relent if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) allows a vote on his foreign-aid amendment, which would set aside $2 billion to help hire veterans.

Conservatives in the House have made similar efforts to curb foreign aid. Freshman Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.) has called for foreign aid to Egypt and Libya to be stripped out of the six-month government funding bill that is expected to clear the House later Thursday.

McCain, who lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race, has criticized the president for pulling troops out of Iraq and not doing more to help rebels in Syria and other Arab nations who are fighting for democracy. But McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, agreed with the Obama administration that aid to Egypt and Libya should continue.

In a television interview with Telemundo, Obama said the United States considers Egypt’s Islamist-led government neither an “ally” nor an “enemy.” But he said the new government, formed earlier this year after protesters overthrew the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, is “trying to find its way.”

Emerging from the Capitol Hill security briefing, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) declined to answer directly whether Egypt should be considered a friend or foe.

“I think that we should expect that all the countries in that region, irrespective of how they may feel about us, secure our facilities and live up to their obligations to protect the diplomatic facilities,” Rubio said.