McCain: House GOP did not join talks because of me

GOP presidential nominee John McCain on Sunday said it was not because of his involvement that House Republicans joined the negotiations over legislation to save Wall Street. 

Following his decision to suspend his presidential campaign on Thursday to return to Washington to be involved in the bailout talks, Sen. McCain (Ariz.) was criticized by Democrats for pulling a political stunt, while some Republicans hailed his impact on the negotiations.

{mosads}McCain, however, appeared to play down his impact.

“It wasn’t because of me that the Republicans in the House of Representatives got into the negotiating and bargaining, which was vital,” McCain said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” The GOP nominee added that the House GOP “did it themselves. And I'm proud of the work that they did.”

Regarding the decision to suspend the campaign, McCain stated: “I did what I thought was the right thing. I saw that they had an agreement that we were working on in the United States Senate. I’m sure it was a good agreement. It wasn't as good as the one we have now.”

Pressed about his role in the negotiations, McCain deferred.

“I will let you and others be the judge of that,” he told Stephanopoulos. “I did the best that I could. I came back because I wasn't going to phone it in…I'm never going to not get engaged when the taxpayers and middle class of America are in danger of losing everything literally that they've worked all their lives for.”

McCain, who stated that he “won't claim a bit of credit” for his work, said “the people up on the Hill deserve great credit that conducted these negotiations.”

The GOP nominee indicated he would support the deal that was announced early Sunday morning in the Capitol.

“This is something that all of us will swallow hard and go forward with. The option of doing nothing is simply not an acceptable option,” he stated.

McCain also stated that he would take a look at whether a second economic stimulus is needed, an idea pushed by Democrats and his rival, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). However, he said a first stimulus measure passed this year “had very little beneficial effect,” a statement that puts the Arizona senator at odds with the White House.

McCain strongly rejected an attack from Obama, who had criticized the Republican for not mentioning the middle class in Friday’s presidential debate.

“Who does he think I was talking about when I said people on Main Street? Who did he think I was talking about, about the necessity of helping the American taxpayers…?” McCain stated.

He also reiterated his call for more joint town hall meetings with Obama, saying those events would improve the tone of the campaign.

“If we’d have had town hall meetings across this country the way that I asked Sen. Obama to do, where his initial response was, "Anywhere, anytime," we would have had a very different tenor to this campaign,” the GOP nominee stated.

Lastly, McCain defended his vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who seemed to indicate that she supports going into Pakistan to attack terrorists – a position for which McCain has criticized Obama.