John McCain now denies he ever said illegal immigrants started the fires

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I posted the other day about John McCain's latest foot-in-mouth disorder. John McCain scapegoats 'illegal aliens' for everything:

"There is substantial evidence that some of these fires have been caused by people who have crossed our border illegally. They have set fires because they want to signal others. They have set fires to keep warm. And they have set fires in order to divert law enforcement agents and agencies from them. So the answer to that part of the problem is get a secure border."

McCain said this on Saturday. In a series of press releases issued since then, John McCain and his GOP pals have said that "a forest service official" briefed them on the fires, yet ABC reported that federal firefighting officials stated there is "no evidence" to back up McCain's phony claim. No forest service official has been identified by name.

As I posted at the time:

The Arizona Republic adds that when Grampy McCrankypants was asked which fires were started by immigrants, he did not provide any specific examples. His sock puppet side-kick, however, chimed in to cover his ass: Sen. Jon Kyl said "Horseshoe was one," referring to a May 2010 blaze near Portal (not this year's Horseshoe Two Fire). Sen. John McCain ties fires to illegal border crossings.

So we have Sen. Jon Kyl whispering the answer in McCain's ear. Or maybe it was his buddy Cochise County Sheriff Larry Deaver, who suffers from the same foot-in-mouth disorder as McCain. Cochise County Sheriff also blames wildfire on smugglers:

McCain took plenty of heat for the comments, Now, however, a local sheriff has come out and supported that view, Reuters reports.

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever told Reuters the Monument Fire was "man-caused" and started in an area near the border fence with Mexico, which is closed to visitors and known to law enforcement for "high-intensity, drug- and human-trafficking. It wasn't the rabbits or the rattle snakes that started this fire, it was human beings, and the only human beings believed to be occupying (the area) were smugglers."

So it wasn't a "forest service official" as McCain and his GOP pals have falsely asserted but rather the usual suspects.

Now McCain is denying that he ever intended to imply that illegal immigrants set these fires. McCain Now Denies Ever Saying Undocumented Immigrants Started Wildfire | ThinkProgress:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has faced non-stop criticism since he falsely claimed undocumented immigrants started the destructive wildfires in northern Arizona. McCain’s responses in the last 24 hours have been all over the map — first he dug in, then he expressed confusion that people were angry, and now he’s resorted to completely denying that he suggested immigrants started this particular wildfire. In an interview with Imus in the Morning, McCain walked back his accusation, saying, “I never said that they did.” Watch it:

At a press conference about the unprecedented damage caused by the Wallow Fire on Saturday, McCain said, “There is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally.” Although McCain is insisting his comments were about other fires, it’s unclear why he would raise the connection to immigrants in that context if he did not intend to cast blame for the damage on immigrants.

Note: This is John McCain's version of Kyling: "It was not intended to be a factual statement."

Just retire and go. You are an embarrassment to this state.