Sen. John McCain: Rep. Louie Gohmert ‘has no intelligence’

(UPI) -- Sen. John McCain’s feud with Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, doesn't look like it’s going to slow down any time any soon.

During an appearance on NBC’s Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams asked McCain, R-Ariz., a question about relations in the Senate and cited a comment Gohmert made in which he accused McCain of supporting al-Qaida.

“Sometimes those -- comments like that are made out of malice, but if someone has no intelligence I don’t view it as being a malicious statement,” McCain responded.


During a speech at the Values Voter Summit in Washington last week, Gohmert was critical of McCain for opposing the government shutdown, but said he wasn’t surprised because McCain has “supported al-Qaida” in Syria.

“Over in the Middle East, we talk to allies and they wonder which one of us are going to be the next ones that you throw under the bus,” Gohmert said. “When it comes to the shutdown that’s going on, I heard just before I came on, some senator from Arizona -- a guy that liked [former Libyan dictator Moammar] Gadhafi before he wanted to bomb him, a guy that liked [former Egyptian strongman Hosni] Mubarak before he wanted him out, a guy that’s been to Syria and supported al-Qaida and the rebels -- but he was saying today the shutdown has been a fool’s errand, and I agree with him. The president and Harry Reid should not have shut this government down.”

Talking head Glenn Beck weighed in on the war of words. He apparently felt like McCain called Gohmert “retarded.”

“He is so stupid, Louie Gohmert, he’s retarded,” Beck said. “I’m not gonna make fun of the retarded. That’s what he’s saying.”