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Matthias Schrader / AP
Sen. John McCain
Updated 12:52 pm ET. Always one to speak -- or Tweet -- his mind, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Monday made a joke comparing Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a monkey, something one Republican congressman charged was “racist.”
“So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space - wasn't he just there last week?” McCain said in a tweet that also linked to a story about Iran launching a monkey into space.
Some didn’t take so kindly to the not-so-diplomatic quip, prompting McCain, 76, to respond: “Re: Iran space tweet - lighten up folks, can't everyone take a joke?”
Seeing that, Michigan congressman Rep. Justin Amash, 32, shot back.
“Maybe you should wisen up & not make racist jokes,” Amash tweeted.
Not everyone on the right agreed with Amash. Conservative John Podhoretz, for example, Tweeted this: "How dare McCain say something demeaning & disparaging abt the foremost anti-Semite on the planet." And this: "So...it's defend-the-Jew-hater-from-the-war-hero day."
It’s not the first time McCain’s made a joke about Iran that landed him in some hot water. During his run for president in 2007, McCain sang about bombing the country.
Asked by a GOP primary voter when the U.S. would send an “air-mail message to Tehran,” McCain said, “That old Beach Boys’ song, ‘Bomb Iran?’ Bomb, bomb, bomb—, anyway.”
McCain’s response then as now? It’s just a joke -- "get a life.”
“When veterans are together, veterans joke,” McCain said at the time. “And I was with veterans and we were joking. And if somebody can’t understand that, my answer is, ‘Please, get a life.’”
Leave a Comment:
It's not often I agree with my senator, but I'll grant him this one. The leader of Iran has been monkeying around with the future safety of his people and pretty soon the monkeys#!t is going to hit the fan.
Ahmadinejad isn't the only person acting like a monkey in this world. There are lots of liberals that act just like him. I really can't believe you liberals would get upset over this unless of course, it meets your "narrative test". Just google Bush and monkeys to see the real vitriol and double standard of these liberal morons.
Justin Amash is a republican you douche bag.
Hey, did you hear the one about the Vietnam POW who sang like a canary?...
What is up with John McCain and his total Nastiness to his former Campaign Chair, Chuck Hagel, and Anyone in President Obama's Administration on Integrity and Intelligence?
He is Still fighting the Viet Nam, Iraq War, the Surge, Afghanistan (He wants to Stay there 50 Years).
NOW HE IS CALLING OTHER WORLD LEADERS NAMES! I never heard Bush, Chaney, or Rumsfeld ever call a Country's Leader a derogatory name of any kind in Public - Private maybe. Even they had the decency to be Intelligent About it. These kind of comments from a U. S. Senator regarding a leader in another Country is just Racist, Infantile and Stupid.
He just made John Kerry's Job a little more Difficult in the Middle East or is that what his intent was, because he is STILL A MAJOR SORE LOSER.
Is McCain trying to FORCE THIS COUNTRY INTO A WAR with Iran? OR is it really time for him to Retire and call it a day before, the last MARBLE IS GONE. He is beginning to act like he has DELAYED PTSD!
McCain is doing his level best along with his Parrot, Lindsay Graham to Derail anything coming from the Obama Administration, even if it good for the Country and it is Republican Ideas.
I just emailed Senator John McCain and asked the same questions.
If his intention was to derail the progress the Obama administration has made with Iran John McCain has set the US - Iran Relations back untold years.
I guess that what Republicans want spend more money covering the same ground.
He's an ass and he needs to step down.
Thank you because he is looking really Bad, and becoming a MAJOR EMBARRASSMENT to this Country, if he continues to speak out in such derogatory words about other Leaders in other Countries, Friend and Foes.
Do they realize our People in some of these Countries and are put in Danger and then THE GOP/TEA in Congress DEFUNDS Security at our Embassies. That was a rhetorical question, of course they do. It is all about HATE on the Obama Administration and NOT GIVING A DAMN who gets caught up in the "Road Kill" to score Political Points.
Classic example of someone who does not understand a the reach and power of a particular technology (Twitter), and who wants to appear "cool," getting bitten in the behind by that technology. Sorry Senator, leave the tweeting to your daughter,Meaghen. Or ask her to explain it to you.
So is he going to try to tell us now that Sarah Palin was just a joke also? The guy's really got great judgment all around...ya becha!
Now now, we must be very careful not to offend people that don't like us and would attack us with nuclear weapons if they could...
Senator McCain should issue an apology... to monkeys everywhere. That douche from Iran isn't as smart as a monkey!
What did this poor monkey do to deserve such an unspeakable insult? Ahmadinejad and the Iranian mullahs should be likened to nothing less than fecal matter. LMAO
So it's o.k. to tell racist jokes now, Southernman76??? ("He wasn't being racist- it was a joke")
You've obviously never been in the military- or worked for the government, because if you had, you would have attended numerous "sensitivity workshops" that would have made it EXTREMELY PLAIN to you that repeating an offensive joke- wether it is sexist or racist- is WRONG- and WILL NOT BE TOLERATED by ANYONE! That means from the lowliest airman/private- all the way up the chain of command. Now if this kind of behavior will NOT be tolerated in an Airman- a Private- a Sargent- or a Captain, how much moreson not out of a SENATOR???? He is plainly incompetant for his position. And to think of all the people who felt him qualified/WANTED him to be President of the US. He is clearly as incompetant for the position as was his running mate.
Thank you Wes346563.
How many houses do I have? Build the doggone fence! Yes or no!
Yeah, it's just a joke; but it is still pretty juvenile for a US Senator.
Ahmadinejad is a bad, bad monkey.
In all fairness, I think it's a generational thing - not seeing harm in those race-tinged comments. But he is supposed to be a diplomat and a representative of the US, it's not at all helpful, and he should know better.
I thought it was funny, I too thought it looked like Ahmadinejad, iranians usually smell like monkeys.
One does not tweet "jokes" if one wants to be taken seriously as a Senator. Real Presidential material, isn't he?
Since picking Palin and losing, he has become more and more strident and desperate to be relevant. He made an embarrassment of himself during the Hagel hearings. It is well past time for this man to retire to one of his many homes and become a Fox commentator (where all failed Republicans go to disappear into the void).
Which is worst? McCain in a joke calling the Iran leader a monkey or Amash supporting the Iran leader over McCain?
Here's my thoughts. (McCain should think of retirements) (Amash should move to Iran)
Does anyone hear think that Iran's President gives a damn what McCain thinks of him? I, for one, think he does not. Also McCain should know one, as it takes one to know one. He has become a tired old, old man - and a very very bitter one. I hope he just goes home soon!
Racist??? You are all idiots. Senator McCain made a verbal slap at a head of state that has vocalized for many years his hatred of the United States. This same head of state successfully masterminded taking Americans hostage many years ago. Senator McCain was being kind when he referred to Ahmadinejad as a monkey. Get with the program American people, Senator McCain is not the enemy, Ahmadinejad has declared himself an enemy of our country. If you want to support Ahmadinejad's theories and practices, then go right ahead...just give up your citizenship to the United States of America, take the first flight to Iran and don't come back. As for me, I'll continue to back a real American, Senator McCain.
Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, but that's no reason to hurt his feelings by calling him a monkey!
Mc Cain's gotten a little goofy in recent years, but this is just a joke. No big deal.
It's people like McCain that made America what it is today.
Give McCain some peanuts or a banana.
There's already been an Iranian in space--and Anousheh Ansari is a woman!
But it doesn't count according to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad because 1) she went up just as the Pope made a mess, so the Muslim world was focused on the old man in Rome, so most people in the Middle East don't know about her trip, and 2) she's a woman, and 3) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a sock puppet.
McCain, there are just no words for what you are!!!!
This is so fu*king stupid. Does anyone really believe he intended that as a racial jab? Just more political correct nonsense.
Doesn't anyone have a gag for this guy...any old sock will do.....he's shaming himself every time he opens his mouth....time to leave the stage John.....you once were a credible senator now you're just a angry, senile old fool who has long passed his time of value.