At UT speech, John McCain says controversial anti-Islamic video "not hateful"

The speech at Reeves Theater on the UT campus was billed as nonpolitical, with the hour-long discussion and Q-and-A highlighted as a speech on foreign policy.

When asked his thoughts about reports that the Obama administration had contacted Google (who owns YouTube) to take down the controversial 14-minute trailer of an anti-Islamic film that allegedly triggered violence last week amongst Muslims in the Middle East, McCain downplayed the content of the video, saying it first went online in early July. Like other conservatives, he said he would have preferred if the White House had spoken up louder for the First Amendment.

"Why don't we say one of our fundamental rights is freedom of speech?," he wondered aloud.

He said twice that the controversial film, "wasn't a hateful video," but just a vehicle used to express anger.

In the aftermath of last week's attack on the U.S. embassy in Cairo, conservatives such as Fox News' Bill O'Reilly have railed against the Egyptian government, calling for Congress to deny the $1.2 billion annually given to it by the U.S. government.

McCain said two things could happen if the U.S. followed through with that threat: one could be Egypt opting out of its peace treaty with Israel, and the second could be the collapse of the Egyptian economy.

"Is that in our best interest?," McCain asked. "I don't think so ... It's easy to think let's cut off all foreign aid. We need to think what the consequences of it are."

Due to the intended nature of the speech, McCain appeared reluctant to lay into the president when asked about the future of the U.S. military after a second Obama term.

"We should not apologize for America," he said, using a theme Romney has employed, including last week after reports of violence surfaced in Cairo.

McCain then criticized President Obama for not reaching out to help Iranians when protests broke out in 2009.

"He said he wanted to negotiate with the Islamic Republic of Iran. In my view, that was a serious mistake," he said, adding that it's an American tradition to speak up for people who have brutal dictators.

He also said that the the country's failure to do anything in the ongoing slaughter of the Syrian people by their leader, Bashar al-Assad, has not been a shining moment in U.S. history.

The most virulent criticism McCain offered about a foreign country had to do with Pakistan. He said he fears that if the current government folds, its nuclear weaponry could fall into the hands of bad actors.

"Obviously that is a direct threat to the security of the world," he said.

He added that the U.S. government needs to recognize the fact that, "there are elements in Pakistan responsible for the deaths of Americans."

McCain was scheduled to campaign later in the day with Mitt Romney in Jacksonville.