Senator John McCain was quoted as saying that President Barack Obama was "directly responsible" for the deadly terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida, in which a shooter pledged allegiance to ISIS and murdered nearly 50 people at a gay nightclub.
According to The Washington Post, McCain's remarks were made in a Senate hallway to a small press gathering. The 2008 presidential candidate was also quoted as saying that the President's decision to pull out of Iraq resulted in the terrorist group ISIS gaining in strength and going "unchecked."
McCain later clarified in a statement that he didn't mean to imply that the President was personally responsible himself.
"I was referring to President Obama's national security decisions, not the President himself," McCain's statement read. "As I have said, President Obama's decision to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of ISIL. 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 pBernardino and now Orlando."
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