Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) asked Tuesday why Fox News' Peter Doocy would "ask something that dumb" when he questioned whether the senator's relationship with President Donald Trump is past the point of ever being productive.
"Is your relationship with the president frayed to the point that you are not going to support anything that he comes to you and asks for?" Doocy asked McCain on Capitol Hill.
Almost before Doocy's full question was out, McCain cut in.
"Why would you say something that stupid?" the Arizona senator asked. "Why would you ask something that dumb, huh?"
McCain went on to say that he is not going to let some personal disagreement get in the way of doing his job.
"My job as a United States senator—you mean that I am somehow going to behave in a way that I now block everything because of some personal disagreement?" McCain asked. "It's a dumb question."
A significant amount of tension has mounted between McCain and Trump over the past few days after McCain attacked Trump's "America First" agenda on Monday, calling it "half-baked" and "spurious nationalism."
Trump later addressed the comments by warning he has been known to "fight back," the Washington Post reported.
"People have to be careful because at some point. I fight back," Trump said in a Tuesday interview with a D.C. radio station. "And it won't be pretty."