{mosads}Speaking on NBC’s Nightly News, McCain was asked if the Senate had lost its sense of decorum. Anchor Brian Williams cited a comment Gohmert made in which he accused McCain of supporting al Qaeda.

“Sometimes those–comments like that are made out of malice, but if someone has no intelligence I don’t view it as being a malicious statement,” McCain said.


Speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington last week, Gohmert blasted McCain for his opposition to the government shutdown, but said it shouldn’t be surprising because McCain has “supported al Qaeda” in Syria.


“Over in the Middle East, we talk to allies and they wonder which one of us are going to be the next ones that you throw under the bus,” Gohmert said. 



“When it comes to the shutdown that’s going on, I heard just before I came on, some senator from Arizona — a guy that liked [former Libyan dictator Moammar] Gadhafi before he wanted to bomb him, a guy that liked [former Egyptian strongman Hosni] Mubarak before he wanted him out, a guy that’s been to Syria and supported al Qaeda and the rebels — but he was saying today the shutdown has been a fool’s errand, and I agree with him. The president and [Sen.] Harry Reid [D-Nev.] should not have shut this government down.”


Later on the House floor, Gohmert said that “some people have tried to take things I said in an inappropriate way.” 

But it’s not the first time he’s accused McCain of having ties to terrorists.


In May, he said McCain and President Obama were partly responsible for the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, died in the attack.