While five wildfires burn up Arizona, Sen. John McCain has decided now is the perfect time for demagoguery.

Over the weekend the senator said immigrants crossing the border “have set fires because they want to signal others. They have set fires to keep warm and they have set fires in order to divert law enforcement agents and agencies from them.”

McCain is apparently keeping the “substantial evidence” for these claims to himself. A spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, meanwhile, was asked whether there was such evidence. “Absolutely not, at this level,” was his reply. — PZS

ABC News via Political Wire:

Tom Berglund, spokesman for the federal group managing the Wallow fire that McCain toured Saturday, said the cause of the fire has been determined as “human,” specifically an “escaped campfire,” meaning the campfire sparked beyond the confines of the rocks containing it.

Two “subjects of interest” have been spoken to, but as of now, no suspect has been named, Berglund said. When asked if there is substantial evidence that some fires were caused by illegal immigrants, as McCain said at a news conference Saturday, Berglund said: “Absolutely not, at this level.”

“There’s no evidence that I’m aware, no evidence that’s been public, indicating such a thing,” he said.

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