Trump’s rhetoric turning Muslims against the US, McCain says

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric is only serving to turn the international Muslim community against the U.S.

{mosads}“Oh, I think it has an interesting effect of turning Muslims all over the world against the United States of America, which is 99.44 percent people who practice an honorable religion,” the Arizona senator said of Trump on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

McCain, a former GOP presidential nominee, also accused 2016 hopefuls of harping on the Syrian refugee crisis, while the U.S. faces much more substantial threats.

“As all of our candidates bloviate about the refugees, [Syrian President] Bashar Assad is a major cause of the refugees which are now flooding Europe and causing such consternation in the United States,” he said. “A no-fly zone will provide a refuge at least for some of these refugees.”

McCain said the longer the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is able to stay in power, the more the terrorist group’s ideology will begin to sink in.

“And by the way, the fact that is we can succeed here and ISIS is not that strong, but the longer they stay in power, the more this poison spreads and metastasizes from as far away as Afghanistan, Africa, and other parts of the world,” he said.

Trump drew criticism earlier this year for saying McCain wasn’t a war hero.

“I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said in July.