McCain Myth Buster: John McCain, Sunnis, and Shiites
April 9, 2008
Despite the fact that John McCain has made the same mistake FIVE times in five months, his campaign continues to claim that John McCain misspoke when he confused Sunni and Shiite extremists in Iraq. After McCain referred to al-Qaeda in Iraq as a Shia group during yesterday's Senate hearing with General Petraeus, McCain's campaign said the senator "stumbled on his words and corrected them immediately."
In reality, McCain isn't simply misspeaking. He is either showing a persistent misunderstanding of the fundamental facts on the ground in Iraq, or he is purposely trying to conflate the threats posed by Sunni and Shiite extremists for political gain. McCain's campaign never issued any correction when he falsely claimed on the Hugh Hewitt Show in March that predominantly Shiite Iran was training Sunni al-Qaeda terrorists. When McCain made the same statement the following day in Jordan, his campaign claimed that he "immediately corrected himself," even though video shows McCain repeated the claim several times and only corrected himself several minutes later after Senator Lieberman interrupted him. One day later, McCain made the same mistake in a written statement marking the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.
If McCain wants to base his entire campaign on his knowledge of Iraq, he should start by explaining why he consistently gets the most basic fact about Iraq wrong.
YESTERDAY: McCain Referred To Al Qaeda As A "Sect Of Shi'ites." During Gen. Petraeus's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain asked Petraeus about the threat of al Qaeda in Iraq. "It is still a major threat," said Petraeus, "though it is certainly not as major a threat as it was, say, 15 months ago." "Certainly not an obscure sect of the Shi'ites overall?" McCain asked, to which Petraeus swiftly replied, "No." "Or Sunnis or anybody else," McCain added. [Fox News Raw Data Transcript, 4/8/08]
- McCain Campaign: McCain Simply "Stumbled on His Words." "In the course of having a serious dialogue with our military leadership in Iraq about how Americans can formulate success going forward," said a McCain spokesman, "John McCain stumbled on his words and corrected them immediately." [First Read, msnbc.com, 4/8/08]
March 18: McCain Repeats False Iran-al Qaeda Link "Several Times." While speaking with reporters in Jordan, McCain expressed concern that Iranian operatives were "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back." Even when "pressed to elaborate," McCain continued with his erroneous assertion, saying it was, "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." McCain was finally corrected by Senator Joe Lieberman, who "stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear," prompting McCain to revise his statement. According to the Washington Post, during the entire course of the press conference McCain "said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda." [Washington Post, "The Trail," 3/18/08]
- McCain Campaign: McCain Misspoke & Immediately Corrected Himself… "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," said a McCain spokesman in a statement. [TheAtlantic.com, Marc Ambinder, 3/18/08]
- …But McCain Made Same Mistake One Day Earlier… McCain said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show "As you know, there are al-Qaeda operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they're moving back into Iraq." [New York Times, 3/19/08; Entire Transcript at http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/talkradio/transcripts/Transcript.aspx?ContentGuid=ae522a49-6c82-4791-a76e-44ebb718bf32]
- …And One Day Later: The next day however, in a press release on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, McCain said "Al Qaeda and Shia extremists -- with support from external powers such as Iran -- are on the run but not defeated." [McCain Presidential Campaign Press Release via Targeted News Service, 3/19/08]
After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.
