Sen. John McCain is catching flack after he made a jab about Long Island on the Senate floor Wednesday.
Oh yes he did.
The Arizona Republican was arguing over the constitutional rights of terrorist detainees arrested in the United States with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) when he made his jab.
“Isn’t it true that Justice O’Connor was specifically referring to a case of a person who was captured on Long Island?” McCain argued. “Last I checked, Long Island was part — albeit sometimes regrettably — part of the United States of America.”
Sen Chuck Schumer (D-NY) quickly shot back with a tweet that said, “@SenJohnMcCain – All of America saw how heroic Long Islanders were on 9/11. #LongIsland deserves an apology.”
McCain went back out on the Senate floor and made an apology that, of course, was somewhat backhanded.
“I made a joke,” he said. “I’m sorry there’s at least one of my colleagues that can’t take a joke and so I apologize if I offended him and hope that someday he will have a sense of humor.” He also referred to it as “wonderful Long Island” in his apology.
Schumer tweeted in response, “NYers can take a joke. But if @SenJohnMcCain wants to mock parts of America, stick to Arizona.”
“I don’t think he meant it to be malicious, but I didn’t want to let it go unanswered,” Schumer later explained.