Sen. John McCain, who last week said he assumes GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz is an
American citizen, on Tuesday laughed a bit when discussing his fellow senator, insisting that there have been "many colleagues" over the years to whom he's shown similar "deep concern and affection."
But still, the veteran Arizona lawmaker told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show that he assumes that Cruz is eligible for the presidency, as he's sure "he and his people would have looked at it."
"When I said it should be looked at, everything about a candidate of the president of the United States is looked at," McCain continued, pointing out that there was a demand for his own medical records and the Senate looked at his eligibility when he ran for the White House in the 2008 election.
"In fact, they passed a resolution 100-0 saying I was eligible because of my birth in the Panama Canal zone," said McCain. "So looking at this is certainly a far cry from trying to stab him in the back. Come on."
Cruz, though, is reportedly not well liked in the Senate, and McCain said it would be difficult for him to help make Washington work again.
"It's routine to have a 'second' in order to get a recorded vote," said McCain. "Several times recently Senator Cruz has tried to get a second in order to have a recorded vote rather than a voice vote on an amendment and he's been unable to get that. I think he has a hill to climb."
But, said McCain, Cruz is a "very, very smart guy...I sure he would understand if he was president of the United States, that he has a challenge there. But I'm sure he would appeal to people like me to say, look, we have to work for the good of the country."
McCain also spoke about his expectations for Tuesday night's State of the Union address, saying that President Barack Obama will take a victory lap on his achievements, but he'd rather hear him talk about his strategy on terrorism.
"There's an empty chair, I understand, for children who have been victims of the gun violence," he said. "I'd like to see another empty chair for the 250,000 Syrians that have been slaughtered and barrel bombed and starved to death because of [Syrian leader] Bashar al Assad and because of his feckless, failed policy. There are seminal moments in history and that was a seminal moment when we lost the confidence of our friend and allies."
But, appearing later Tuesday on Fox News' "America's Newsroom," McCain said time is running out for responding to terrorism."
"I almost think that this president is running out the clock and the next president is going to have one heck of a challenge to clean this up," said McCain. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but there will be further attacks. There is no strategy."