During a press conference yesterday, John McCain, a self-described expert on matters of national security and international affairs, made a very high-profile screw-up — he falsely insisted that al Qaeda terrorists are being trained in Iran to fight in Iraq. What’s more, he asserted without hesitation that this is “common knowledge.”
Of course, McCain’s claim didn’t make any sense. He was speaking with authority about the basics in the Middle East, and getting the regional dynamic backwards. The campaign scrambled to minimize the damage.
“In a press conference today, John McCain misspoke and immediately corrected himself by stating that Iran is in fact supporting radical Islamic extremists in Iraq, not Al Qaeda — as the transcript shows. Democrats have launched political attacks today because they know the American people have deep concerns about their candidates’ judgment and readiness to lead as commander in chief.”
Dems highlighted the fact that McCain doesn’t know what he’s talking about because we’re worried about Clinton and Obama? If you say so.
But the key part of the response was the notion that McCain “misspoke and immediately corrected himself.” That’s not what happened at all. McCain made the claim on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, then he made it again in Jordan, and then made it again before Joe Lieberman whispered in his ear that he was wrong. This isn’t indicative of someone who accidentally flubbed a line; this is someone who genuinely believed a claim that didn’t make any sense.
Of course, a gaffe only matters if voters hear about it.
I nearly fell out of my chair yesterday when the AP reported on McCain’s “concern” over Iranian influence in Iraq, but edited out the al Qaeda reference: “McCain also voiced concern that Tehran is bringing militants over the border into Iran for training before sending them back to fight U.S. troops in Iraq.”
Reporters fawning over McCain is one thing, but are major media outlets really prepared to start helping McCain directly like this? Fortunately, the AP picked up on reality shortly thereafter.
Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, mistakenly said Tuesday that Iran was allowing al-Qaida fighters into the country to be trained and returned to Iraq…. Iran has been accused by the United States of funding, training and arming Iraqi Shiite militants in their uprising against the United States. But there have been no allegations by Washington and no evidence that al-Qaida has benefited from Iranian assistance. […]
McCain’s gaffe immediately drew criticism from the Democratic National Committee, which insisted he must not understand the challenges facing Iraq.
“Not only is Senator McCain wrong on Iraq once again, but he showed he either doesn’t understand the challenges facing Iraq and the region or is willing to ignore the facts on the ground,” said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney.
It also got at least some play in the major dailies, with the NYT noting that McCain “misidentified some of the main players in the Iraq war,” and the WaPo reporting that he “incorrectly asserted Tuesday that Iran is training and supplying al-Qaeda in Iraq, confusing the Sunni insurgent group with the Shiite extremists who U.S. officials believe are supported by their religious brethren in the neighboring country.”
To be sure, yesterday was a pretty busy one in the political world, but if there’s any justice at all, McCain will face a little more heat over this. It wasn’t a minor error or the result of a misspoken word. As hilzoy explained very well, “It’s important to be clear about exactly how clueless this is…. No one who had any understanding at all of Iraq, or for that matter about the Shi’a/Sunni split and which side Iran was on, would get confused about this, any more than someone with any knowledge of US politics would get confused about whether neo-confederates were likely to be supporting blacks, or conservatives were likely to be supporting the Socialist Workers’ Party. It is exactly that clueless.”
And just as an aside, Mark Kleiman has an excellent suggestion: “Given McCain’s buffoonish performance in Jordan, wouldn’t this be a good time for Hillary Clinton to say, ‘Gee, I thought he was ready to be Commander-in-Chief, but it sure doesn’t sound like it. The least we should expect from the President is some basic knowledge about who our enemies are.'”