Sen. John McCain said Monday that it’s time for the Obama administration to stop its “spin campaign” around the Iran deal and develop a comprehensive strategy to keep America safe.
The Arizona Republican released a statement responding to reports that Iran conducted its third ballistic missile test since the beginning of the year.
“The spin campaign continues as the Obama administration ignores repeated Iranian provocations that threaten its narrative – the detention of U.S. sailors by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in clear violation of international law, rockets fired near a U.S. aircraft carrier, ballistic missile tests in violation of United Nations resolutions, and continued support for terrorism and the murderous Assad regime that is destabilizing the Middle East and undermining American interests,” McCain said, referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“It is long past time for the Obama administration to disenthrall itself with the dangerous illusion of a new relationship with Iran and adopt a comprehensive strategy to counter Iran’s malign influence and protect America’s national security interests,” he continued.
Fox News reported that Iran’s recent successful medium-range ballistic missile test was capable of striking U.S. forces deployed to the region in addition to being able to reach Israel.
It’s the third reported test since last year’s historic nuclear deal between Iran and the U.S. went into effect in January.
McCain also slammed Ben Rhodes, the “aspiring fiction writer” and one of the president’s top aides, for reportedly manipulating the facts of the Iran deal to sell it to the press and the American people. The story by New York Times Magazine offers a “troubling glimpse of the White House spin machine that has put sustaining ‘the narrative’ above advancing the national interest,” McCain said.
“Worst of all, the article revealed the stubborn arrogance of a president that refuses to allow reality to interfere with his pre-conceived notions about the world,” McCain said in a statement. “Even as the perils of indecision and inaction grow clearer by the day — Russian and Chinese adventurism, the rise of ISIL, terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States, and hundreds of thousands dead in Syria — the president remains unmoved, his narrative unchanged.”
