money Meghan McCain’s Ready to Move on From the Insurrection: ‘It Was Four Months Ago’
The View’s Meghan McCain dismissed concerns about Republican denialism of the Capitol riots on Thursday, declaring that the January insurrection “was four months ago” and that her colleagues should be more focused on whether or not she can get gas in her car.
On the same day that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was booted from her GOP leadership position because she continued to push back on former President Donald Trump’s election lies, a number of House Republicans openly embraced Jan. 6 trutherism during a House hearing on the insurrection—which was incited by Trump’s false stolen election narrative.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), for instance, said it was a “bald-faced lie” to call the violent riots an insurrection, insisting that the MAGA mob storming the Capitol looked like “a normal tourist visit.” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who is tied to the organizers behind the Jan. 6 events, claimed federal investigators were “harassing peaceful patriots” by arresting and indicting the rioters.
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Discussing GOP attempts to revise history at the top of Thursday’s program, liberal co-host Joy Behar said it was “just shameless” what Republicans were doing while claiming people she talks to “are frightened that this party will bring down this country.”
Fellow host Sara Haines, for her part, largely agreed with Behar. Saying it was “unbelievable to watch,” Haines went on to say “this is a strategy” by the GOP as they are now just copying Trump’s tactics of repeating a lie over and over until a large percentage of Americans believe it.
“We’ve seen this before. We’ll see it again. It’s just—it’s about as insane as it gets,” she added.
Asked whether she thinks Republican voters will continue to buy this new narrative, McCain—the show’s resident conservative panelist—said it was time to move on and focus on how bad America has supposedly gotten under President Joe Biden.
“This happened four months ago and we’ve been talking about it for four months,” she stated. “I made my perspective absolutely crystal clear. I think it’s horrific. I don’t believe the ‘Big Lie.’ We talked about Liz Cheney at length.”
Referencing Behar’s assertion that her friends are “frightened,” McCain then insisted that “my friends are frightened as well” before stating that she was personally impacted by the gas shortages in Virginia and other states across the southeast. (Panic buying in the wake of a ransomware attack on a major pipeline appears to be the main culprit in the temporary shortage. The pipeline was back online by Wednesday afternoon.)
“I had to have a conversation with my executive producer about whether or not I’m going to be able to find gas in my car because there’s no gas where I live,” she exclaimed. “I’m privileged. I work for a company who is going to find a way to get me to work.”
McCain also fired back at Haines for criticizing the GOP’s “strategy,” saying it was a “strategy” by the media and her colleagues not to focus “on anything the Biden administration is doing right now that’s leading this country into crisis.” She then rattled off a list of apparent crises that just so happened to align with the current talking points on Fox News and right-wing media.
“There’s a crisis at the border. Inflation rates are sky-high. Unemployment is crazy,” she fumed. “A lot of Americans can’t figure out how to get gas in the car. It’s like the ’70s all over again. I think there’s a strategy that the media doesn’t want to focus on anything bad in the Biden administration!”
Circling back to her original complaint that the insurrection was old news, McCain added: “I implore everyone who works in the industry, just because Trump was so bad doesn’t mean this is good. There are real meat and potatoes issues impacting real Americans. I think we should be focusing on that versus something that happened four months ago.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg, for her part, didn’t even engage with McCain’s argument, shrugging it off while just asking fellow panelist Sunny Hostin to give her take on the situation.
“I think it’s really important not to forget what happened just four months ago,” Hostin responded. “I think the attack on our democracy continues each and every day by the Republican Party and that is something that we cannot forget.”
Hostin also referenced harrowing body-cam footage of Officer Michael Fanone—who was brutally assaulted by Capitol rioters—begging for his life, noting that Fanone has blasted GOP lawmakers for whitewashing the insurrection. And she seemed to send a direct message to McCain.
“We need to remember this officer and those other Capitol officers. Republicans can never, ever say they are the party of Blue Lives Matter,” she concluded. “They should be ashamed of themselves for what they did yesterday, what they continue to do. That is an important story that we should never, ever, EVER stop talking about or forget.”
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