John McCain blasted Barack Obama for the Syrian refugee crisis, saying it “didn’t have to happen” but it did because of the president’s “failed policies” in the Middle East.
McCain, appearing on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” Tuesday, argued that “We need to establish a no-fly zone. We need to tell Bashar al Assad we are going to shoot down any of his aircraft that barrel bomb these people.”
Andrea Mitchell: Arizona Republican Senator John McCain joins me now. You’re a father. You have a very large family. You can relate to what this man is trying to express, the children are just heartbreaking.
John McCain: Well, it is heartbreaking, Andrea. And it’s doubly heartbreaking because it didn’t have to happen. It happened because of the failed policies of Barack Obama. Our failure to stop Bashar al Assad’s slaughter of his own people now over 230,000. We need to establish a no-fly zone. We need to tell Bashar al Assad we are going to shoot down any of his aircraft that barrel bomb these people. I would imagine that tens of thousands have been killed by the barrel bombing which has made conditions impossible for these people and that’s why they’re fleeing. It’s an abdication of American responsibility which has caused this tragedy and it’s on the hands of Barack Obama.