Arizona Senator John McCain says his line of questioning during former FBI Director James Comey's Senate hearing was a "colossal screw-up." McCain's questions at the June hearing left Comey confused at times. McCain even referred to Comey as "President Comey" at one point.
McCain seemed to be trying to highlight a discrepancy between Comey's actions while he was with the FBI in regards to both the Russia investigation and the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server. The two investigations were not related. According to USA Today, the exchange generated 3.6-million tweets and was the most talked about moment of the hearing.
In a new interview with Esquire, McCain says that he had questions lined up to ask Comey but was thrown off course at the last minute by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. Graham was watching the hearing from his Senate office and was trying to relay a message to McCain in the moments leading up to McCain's turn to ask questions.
McCain says one of his aides gave him a phone displaying an email from Graham but the screen went black just as the chairman called his name. Instead of going back to the questions that he and staff had initially prepared, McCain tried to piece together a line of questions related to Graham's request out of loyalty to Graham.
McCain had initially joked that his performance during "Washington's Super Bowl" was due to him staying up late the night before to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Watch the exchange between McCain and Comey below.