I’m wondering if McCain was making a comment about how smart he is or is the word intelligence being used like it’s used with “CIA intelligence” meaning he has no proof of McCain supporting al Qaeda.
Maybe the better response to McCain would be to treat it as the latter and show the picture of him standing with al Qaeda and simply say “Yes John we do have the intelligence, and here’s the picture to prove it.”
It was an insult. He should be marginalized by leadership to limit the damage he can do in the future.