President-elect Trump had every right to be angry at the leak of an unsubstantiated dossier claiming Russia had collected compromising information about him, Sen. John McCain says.
In an interview Tuesday on "Fox and Friends," the Arizona Republican called the release "totally wrong."
"The fact that this un-validated document, to say the least, was leaked — it's somebody's responsibility," said McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"The very fact that it was leaked, one, is a commentary on this town," he added. "But second, [it is] totally wrong to have that out."
"[It is] an unvalidated document that is damning out there among the American public without any validation whatsoever. And so it's harmful to the president of the United States."
McCain also slammed outgoing CIA Director John Brennan for going public to argue about the dossier's leak — and criticize Trump.
"I don't think it was his role to do so," McCain said, adding, however, about Trump: "I didn't like his language that he used."
With Brennan's departure, McCain says he hopes relations between Trump and the intelligence community will improve.
"Obviously our intelligence agencies, especially the CIA, are very important aspects of our ability to confront the very serious and daunting challenges that are the legacy of the outgoing Obama administration," he said. "The world's on fire."