Meghan McCain

About

Meghan McCain is an American television host, columnist and writer. The daughter of late-Senator John McCain, she is currently the co-host of the morning roundtable talk show The View.

Online History

Meghan emerged as a cultural figure during her father's 2008 presidential campaign. At the time, Meghan, then in her late-teens and early-20s, wrote a blog called the McCain Blogette, where she would discuss her life, culture and politics.^[1] Following the campaign, she leveraged her popularity into a writing career, publishing several books and writing for outlets like The Daily Beast in 2009.^[2] From 2013 to 2017, McCain attempted to break into television, first on the cable channel Pivot and later on Fox News as a contributor.

In 2017, McCain became the 21st co-host of the morning talk show The View.

Relationship With Donald Trump

Throughout President Trump's campaign and his presidency, the president had made several disparaging remarks about McCain's father Senator John McCain. On March 20th, 2019, McCain and her View co-hosts discussed comments made by President Trump about McCain's funeral, which he approved but was never "thanked" for. Meghan McCain made agave a statement about the comments, reading a quote from her sister Bridget, and asking for support for a veterans charity.

Omar Ilhan Comments

On February 11th, 2019, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar became the subject of a controversy after a series of tweets in which criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobby for Israel, for influencing political support for Israel. These tweets were interpreted as anti-Semitic.

That morning, Omar responded to a tweet by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who wrote, "GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy threatens punishment for @IlhanMN and @RashidaTlaib over their criticisms of Israel. It's stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans." She responded with a quote by rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs, "It's all about the Benjamins baby. The post received more than 5,200 retweets and 25,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).^[6]

Reporter Batya Ungar-Sargon responded to the tweet,^[7] "Would love to know who @IlhanMN thinks is paying American politicians to be pro-Israel, though I think I can guess. Bad form, Congresswoman. That's the second anti-Semitic trope you've tweeted." Omar responded, "AIPAC." The second tweet received more than 4,500 retweets and 22,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).

In response to these comments, on March 7th, McCain made a statement on The View. She said, "With the rise of anti-Semitism in this country, is it more important to defend party politics or is it more important to [object to] anti-Semitism? If what Ilhan Omar were saying for the past few weeks were said by a white Republican male, how would you be reacting to it right now?"

The following day, Jewish artist Eli Valley tweeted^[8] a cartoon about McCain's comments, implying that she does not understand nor have a right to speak about Jewish issues. The post received more than 2,400 retweets and 16,000 likes in less than one month (shown below, left).

McCain responded to the cartoon by writing,^[9] "This is one of the most anti-semitic things I’ve ever seen. Also, this reveals so much more about you than it does me." The post received more than 1,800 retweets and 11,000 likes in one month (shown below, right).

Following the controversy, people began posting jokes about McCain using the hashtag #MeghanSoJewish,^[10] mocking her decision to speak for Jewish people as a Christian. These jokes reflect McCain's perceived ignorance about Jewish culture (example below).

Related Memes

My Father

On March 17th, 2019, Twitter ^[3] user @calebstark posted a video supercut of Meghan McCain saying "my father." They captioned the post "Live shot of @meghanmccain practicing for tomorrow's episode of @theview." Within one week, the post received more than 100 retweets, 260 likes and 1 million views (shown below).

Over the next week, the video became the punchline to various jokes about McCain, as well as one's relationship with their father. One of the most popular posts was posted by Twitter^[4] user @ira, who wrote, "New therapist: What brings you here?" The post received more than 11,000 retweets and 54,000 likes (shown below).

On March 21st, The Daily Dot ^[5] published a report on the meme.

Search Interest

External References