McCain Renews Attack on Clinton

ABC News’s Bret Hovell reports: Senator John McCain renewed an attack on the Democratic frontrunner for the White House Wednesday, chastising Senator Hillary Clinton for voting to cut off funding to troops in Iraq.

“I don’t see how you support the troops if you’re not willing to fund the mission that they are on,” said McCain, R-Ariz.

His remarks were similar to previous criticisms he has made about Clinton. Last week in New York City, McCain said that he doesn’t “know how you intellectually justify cutting off the funding to the troops while they’re still over there fighting,” and said that the New York Democrat does “not having the grasp of the situation that I do.”

Earlier in the day, McCain had been scheduled to deliver remarks critical of Clinton’s leadership on the Iraq war and the growing confrontation with Iran. He decided not to make the statements, as he was addressing an audience of middle- and high school-aged students.

McCain’s comments Wednesday evening were to a voting-age audience at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC. He was the first presidential candidate to speak in that school’s “Bully Pulpit Series” on presidential communication.

McCain singled out Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan as communicators whose skills he respected for their ability to seem down to earth and friendly while still being “able to maintain a level of respect and admiration.”

McCain promised that as President he would have a press conference once a week, and would offer a “rather detailed” weekly briefing to the American people on the progress of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “only if it was covered by C-SPAN.”

“The American people have a right to know…” he said. “I think sometimes the American people feel that they don’t know enough about what we’re doing, particularly when we’re in conflicts.”

McCain’s remarks were followed by more than forty minutes of questions from the audience, on topics ranging from foreign policy, to religion, to the economy, to the legal drinking age.

“I have to admit to you I have always seen a bit of a contradiction when we say that if you’re 18 and you’re old enough to go over and get in combat at the same time we can’t let you have a beer,” McCain said. Speaking with reporters after the event, he said that despite that contradiction, he comes down strongly believing that the drinking age should remain 21.

He was also asked about a resolution that recently passed in the Senate condemning the liberal group Move-On.org for an advertisement it ran about General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. The ad, which ran in the New York Times, questioned the veracity of the testimony Petraeus gave to Congress last month, and called Petraeus “General Betray-us.”

McCain said it that resolution was important to show Petraeus that senators “thought this kind of attack on his honor was inappropriate.”

“He was wounded by that…” McCain said of Petraeus. “He would never admit this, never admit it, but I think that it was something that understandably might upset anyone who had led a life of service to the country.”