Writing in WSJ, McGurn falsely claimed McCain "push[ed]" for Bush "to replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld"

Summary: In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, William McGurn claimed that Sen. John McCain "push[ed]" for President Bush to "replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, long before anyone else." In fact, the McCain campaign itself reportedly admitted that McCain did not call for Rumsfeld to be fired, or for his resignation.

In an August 5 Wall Street Journal op-ed, William McGurn, News Corp. vice president and former Journal chief editorial writer, claimed that Sen. John McCain "push[ed]" for President Bush to "replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, long before anyone else." McGurn made the false claim in support of his assertion that "[o]f all Republicans, Mr. McCain should have the least to worry about being called a Bush clone." In fact, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, and as the McCain campaign itself reportedly admitted, McCain did not call for Rumsfeld to be fired, or for his resignation. The Washington Post reported in February that McCain's campaign admitted that he "did not call for his [Rumsfeld's] resignation. ... He always said that's the president's prerogative."

While McCain expressed "no confidence" in Rumsfeld in 2004, the Associated Press reported at the time that McCain "said his comments were not a call for Rumsfeld's resignation." Further, when Fox News host Shepard Smith specifically asked McCain, "Does Donald Rumsfeld need to step down?" on November 8, 2006 -- hours before President Bush announced Rumsfeld's resignation -- McCain responded that it was "a decision to be made by the president."

As Media Matters noted, The Washington Post reported in a February 9 article that McCain "regularly reminds audiences that he also criticized Bush's management of the war and called for Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation as defense secretary." After Media Matters noted that McCain's assertion that he had called for Rumsfeld's resignation was false, the Post published an article reporting that McCain "overstate[d] his public position on Rumsfeld" and never called for him to resign. According to the February 16 article: "[D]uring a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., aired on CNN, McCain said, 'I'm the only one that said that Rumsfeld had to go.' A McCain spokesman acknowledged this week that that was not correct. 'He did not call for his resignation,' said the campaign's Brian Rogers. 'He always said that's the president's prerogative.' " The February 16 Post article also noted that "McCain's false account has been unwittingly incorporated into the narrative he is selling by some news organizations, including The Washington Post."

Indeed, in addition to the Post, MSNBC chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, PBS host Charlie Rose, syndicated columnist and National Review Online editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg, and CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger have all falsely claimed or suggested that McCain called for Rumsfeld to resign or be fired.

From McGurn's August 5 Wall Street Journal op-ed:

Yet however awkward Mr. McCain may find standing with President Bush, the greater danger is that Mr. McCain will buy into Mr. Obama's campaign theme. And that is what appears to be happening.

Of all Republicans, Mr. McCain should have the least to worry about being called a Bush clone. Not only was Mr. McCain pushing for a surge in Iraq, and to replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, long before anyone else, he has famously gone his own way on everything from stem cells and campaign finance to global warming and (before recanting) tax cuts.

—E.H.H.