Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said the United States has "no credibility" in Egypt given the Obama administration's tacit approval of the Egyptian military Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
McCain said the United States is in violation of its own laws by not formally recognizing the coup and the Obama administration is relinquishing its influence on Egypt by failing to pressure the Egyptian military to stop their violent crackdown on civilians:
CANDY CROWLEY: Joining us now is Senator John McCain. He recently traveled to Egypt at the request of the president. Senator, you came back a changed man, at least on the issue of whether the U.S. should cut out -- should suspend aid to Egypt. What made you change your mind?
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Well, first of all, I wanted to give them an opportunity to do the right thing after the coup had taken place. And it was pretty clear, to say the least, that they have not only not changed, but they have orchestrated a massacre, as you mentioned. We don't know, a thousand or many thousands wounded. We have no credibility, Candy. That's the problem. Because we know that the administration called the Egyptians and said, look, if you do a coup, we're going to cut off aid because that's the law. We have to comply with the law. And we in this administration did not do that after threatening to do so. And we are not in compliance with the law about a coup, which is clearly what it is. And then we thought there was possibly a deal to be made where they would release a couple of the Muslim Brotherhood, including a former speaker of the parliament, and in return for reductions in numbers of demonstrators, move forward with the constitution and elections. Obviously the general al-Sisi decided not to pursue that and rejected it and decided to use force as we saw today, in the last few days. And with Apache helicopters flying overhead, nothing is more symbolic of the United States of America siding with the generals. We have no credibility. We do have influence, but when you don't use that influence, then you do not have that influence. We could be cutting off the aid, the spare parts and maintenance of these military equipment that we've given the Egyptians is important to their capabilities.