McCain Challenges Obama To His Face
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Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has publicly criticized President Barack Obama for announcing a target date to begin pulling back from Afghanistan, challenged the president’s policy to his face in a private meeting at the White House Tuesday afternoon.
During Obama’s meeting with members of Congress prior to the president’s Tuesday speech at West Point, McCain expressed concern that setting a date for withdrawal will embolden the United States’ enemies and said “success” is the true exit strategy, several sources familiar with the meeting said.
Obama replied, the sources said, much in the way he addressed the issue in his speech Tuesday night — arguing that a drawdown would take into consideration conditions on the ground in Afghanistan.
It is not the first time McCain has jabbed Obama during a private meeting on the war Afghanistan. In another gathering of lawmakers at the White House in early October, when Obama was holding sessions to devise a new Afghanistan strategy, McCain told the president he should not be taking a “leisurely” approach to making a decision.
Obama responded by saying that he was not making his decision in a “leisurely” fashion.
In this Tuesday’s hourlong meeting, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gave McCain ample question time, the sources said, which the Arizona Republican used primarily to push back on Obama’s withdrawal goals.
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