Historic Tweet of the Week

"Last American combat troops leave Iraq. I think President George W. Bush deserves some credit for victory."

-- Senator John McCain, August 18, 2010 (emphasis added).

McCain apparently forgot about that 2010 tweet when he made this statement yesterday:  “Barack Obama is directly responsible for [the Massacre in Orlando], because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures.”

McCain was right in 2010 to credit blame George W. Bush for the troop withdrawal from Iraq, because it was George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who negotiated the troop withdrawal, and it was President George W. Bush who signed the U.S./Iraq Status of Forces Agreement in 2008 that ultimately got our troops out of Iraq.

Steve Benen had this to say about McCain's contradictory statements:

Look, I’m aware of the broader circumstances. McCain is facing a tough re-election fight in Arizona, including a competitive Republican primary. He has an incentive to say ridiculous and irresponsible things about the president, and perhaps even try to exploit a tragedy for partisan ends.

But if these are the final months of McCain’s lengthy congressional career, is this really how he wants to go out? Using the kind of rhetoric more closely associated with Trump than an ostensible Republican statesman?

Amen, Brother.