Politics / John McCain McCain Caught Playing Online Poker ... During Syria Hearings Senator laughs it off, says hearings were nearly 4 hours in By John Johnson, Newser Staff Posted Sep 3, 2013 6:47 PM CDT Copied McCain Caught Playing Online Poker ... During Syria Hearings See the photo in this video. (Newsy) This might make it a little trickier for John McCain to sound so serious next time he's warning about the huge consequences at stake in Syria: Photographer Melina Mara of the Washington Post snapped a photo of him playing online poker during today's Syria hearings on Capitol Hill. You can see it here. The camera doesn't lie, and McCain isn't even attempting to get evasive: "Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!" he tweeted after the photo started making the rounds, notes MSNBC. He elaborated later on CNN: "As much as I like to always listen with rapt attention constantly (to) remarks of my colleagues over a three and a half period, occasionally I get a little bored and so I resorted. But the worst thing about it is I lost thousands of dollars in this game." He quickly added that it was fake money. (More John McCain stories.) See 1 photo Report an error