McCain Caught Lying About Progress In Iraq

General James Jones recently returned from a Congressional-mandated trip to Iraq and reported that political reconciliation “is absolutely the key to measurable and rapid progress” and needed to happen before any significant reduction in violence could happen. On Meet The Press today, John McCain incorrectly claimed that General Jones did not conclude in his recent Iraq report that political reconciliation needed to happen before a drawdown in violence can be achieved:
MCCAIN: Tim, I’ve known Jim Jones for 30 years. That’s not what he’s saying.
In reality, this was exactly what Jones said, both in his report and on Meet The Press a week ago. Below are two clips from Meet The Press, first with McCain today disputing what Jones said, and second with Jones agreeing with Russert’s categorization of his report the week before:
Partial transcript of Jones and Russert on Meet The Press on September 9th: