His huddle with the White House seemed to instill some confidence in McCain that the capital of Iraq can resist the militants’ advance. Last week, McCain declined to predict whether the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq could take Baghdad.

But based on the information he has now, McCain believes that the Iraqi army can hold the city.

“I don’t believe Baghdad will fall,” he told reporters Monday evening, explaining that the ISIS can still wage a terrorist campaign in Iraq. “What they can do is orchestrate bombings, assassinations, create turmoil, shelling in different places. But I am pretty confident that they won’t take Baghdad.”