Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) argued Thursday that America is not safer under the Obama administration as President Barack Obama's himself proclaimed in a nationally televised address to the nation.
Obama said Wednesday that his administration has "taken the fight" to terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, even as it has brought most troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his colleague Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) rejected Obama's assertion Wednesday night that America is safer now. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)
"Thanks for our military and counterterrorism professionals, America is safer," he said.
But McCain and Graham rejected that assertion, and said Obama has no evidence to back it up.
"By no objective measurement is America safer," McCain said. "When you look at Twitter and Facebook, you will see that ISIS is threatening the United States of American and urging others to come to the United States of America and attack the United States of America."
McCain added that the border is not secure, which is a recipe for the Islamic State or others to try to infiltrate the country and commit acts of terror.
"So no, Mr. President, America is not safer," McCain said. "In fact, because of a feckless foreign policy, America is in greater danger than it has been, in some respects, in my lifetime."
Graham followed McCain onto the floor and also rejected Obama's claim.
"Do you believe that? I don't," Graham said of Obama's comments.
"There are more terrorist organizations with more money, more capability, more weapons to attack our homeland than existed before 9/11," he said. "We are not safer than we were before 9/11."
