McCain: Republicans Need to Quit Ripping Romney

Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Republicans criticizing Mitt Romney aren’t helping his cause and that the race is still tight.

The 2008 Republican presidential nominee appeared on Bloomberg’s new Sunday program, “Capitol Gains,” and said his campaign was “declared dead” in 2007 but “we had an incredible resurrection and ended up winning” the nomination, according to the National Journal.

Despite some “obviously difficult times” for the Romney campaign, McCain noted the race is “still very close.”

“Those Republicans taking shots at me when I was down didn't help me at all,” he said on the show, the Journal reported. “Why would Republicans try to harm a Republican candidate?”

McCain defended Romney earlier in the week also, speaking on Capitol Hill.

"I resent armchair generals who sit there and fire shots at a campaign that's doing the best that it can," he said, according to USA Today.

"One thing I found in 2008 was I had more experts tell me what I should be doing than I had time to listen to," McCain said of Republicans expressing doubts about Romney's ability to beat President Barack Obama. "Everybody is an expert on political campaigns. He's the nominee of the party; however he wants to conduct his campaign is fine with me," McCain said, USA Today reported.