Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) slammed President Obama for his "puzzling" statements about the U.S. intelligence community "underestimating" the threat of ISIL.
"The intelligence people are pushing back hard," McCain said. "We predicted this and watched it. It was like watching a train wreck and warning every step of the way because a residual force would have stabilized the situation and, of course, maybe had a break on Maliki."
McCain said the rhetoric emanating from the Obama administration is not truthful, saying U.S. security interests would have been better served by leaving troops in Iraq rather than withdrawing them in 2011.
"It is a direct result of our failure to leave a residual force behind and when they say we couldn't, they are not telling the truth," McCain said. "This idea that somehow we didn't know that this was happening? Of course we knew it. We saw it happening."
