Sen. Roy Blunt and Sen. Claire McCaskill disagreed sharply Wednesday over the administration's response to attacks on two U.S. embassies -- and presidential candidate Mitt Romney's reaction to that response.

In a conference call with reporters, Blunt, a Republican, said the White House response to attacks on the embassies -- following an anti-Muslim film -- was a proper subject for presidential debate.

And he, like Romney, attacked a statement from the Egyptian embassy early in the crisis as an improper apology from the United States.

"Surely the Obama administration will walk away from the statement Gov. Romney criticized," he said. "It should have been criticized. It was a ridiculous position for us to take. Apologizing for America is not the way that you're going to advance your cause anywhere, particularly in the middle east."

In a conference call an hour later McCaskill, a Democrat, fired back -- at Blunt and Romney.

"I don't think this government has apologized," she said.

She also accused Romney of reacting too quickly.

"It is very important, if you want to be commander-in-chief, that you wait until you have all the facts before you shoot from the hip," she said. "And I think this campaign was more worried about scoring political points than they were in focusing on what would...show strength, wisdom, and sure-footedness."