John McCain continued Sunday to accuse Mitt Romney of advocating a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, while Romney said McCain was trying to change the subject from the economy to national security.
“Governor Romney obviously said there had to be timetables,” the GOP presidential candidate told NBC. “If we’d have done that, as the Democrats and some Republicans wanted to do, we would’ve lost that surge and al Qaeda would be celebrating a victory.”
McCain was referring to a remark that Romney made to ABC in April about whether timetables should be adopted by President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
“The president and Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about,” Romney said at the time. “But those shouldn’t be for public pronouncement. You don’t want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you’re going to be gone.”
For the second day in a row, McCain seized on the quote Sunday.
“That was a clear indication of setting timetables,” he said. “You don’t want to tell the enemy when you’re going to be gone.”
Romney denied advocating a public timetable and accused McCain of trying to make the debate about national security instead of the economy. Polls show the economy figures prominently in Tuesday’s GOP primary in Florida, where McCain and Romney are locked in a tie.
“He doesn’t want to talk about the economy, because frankly he has pointed out time and again that he doesn’t understand how the economy works,” Romney told CNN.
Last week, during a GOP debate, McCain tried to disassociate himself from an admission he made to several newspapers that “I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”
On Sunday, McCain acknowledged making the statement, but insisted he is “smart on economics.”
“Of course, I always have things to learn, and I continue to learn every day,” he added. “I know more about national security.”
Although McCain has had a friendly relationship with the media for years, many journalists criticized him for accusing Romney of advocating timetables.
“No American politician has gotten more adoring press coverage than John McCain,” CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin said Sunday. “But let’s be clear about what John McCain is doing about Mitt Romney. He’s lying.”
The New York Times said McCain’s “charge appears to be misleading.” The Associated Press added: “Romney never embraced the idea of a public withdrawal date.”
Romney said McCain “knows that is a dishonest statement. And it has been shown such by the media that looked at what he said.”
As a result, Romney spokesman Kevin Madden added that McCain’s “natural advantage with the media evaporated.”
