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On Sunday's Meet the Press on NBC, host David Gregory allowed Massachusetts Senator John Kerry to blame Standard and Poor's downgrade of U.S. debt on the Tea Party without challenge . However, minutes later, in an interview with Arizona Senator John McCain, Gregory was quick to accuse Republicans of “politicizing” the issue by criticizing Democrats. After quoting a statement from House Speaker John Boehner on the downgrade – which cited the unwillingness of Democrats to curb massive government spending as a cause – Gregory fretted to McCain: “Do you not see this downgrade as something akin to war that should galvanize political leadership on both sides of the aisle, rather than politicizing it?” Earlier in the exchange, Gregory was happy further Kerry's assertion that it was a “Tea Party downgrade,” arguing: “There were Republicans and Democrats who said Tea Party members, a lot of them freshmen conservatives, were digging in and, actually, some used the word 'hostage,' holding the whole process hostage because they would not raise any taxes at all.” McCain condemned the depiction of Tea Party members of Congress as hostage-takers: “And by the way, talking about hostages, of lately the Democrats have been calling us terrorists. So we need to lower that level of rhetoric, obviously.” Responding to McCain's observation that President Obama had failed to lead in the debt ceiling debate, Gregory declared: “The President was dealing….John Boehner was dealing. They were coming up with a plan. They couldn't sell it. Was this really failed presidential leadership?” Here is a transcript of Gregory's August 7 exchange with McCain over the debt downgrade: 10:44AM ET DAVID GREGORY: Joining me now, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.