Not everyone was thrilled over Mark Sanford’s electoral win on Tuesday night after the once-disgraced South Carolina Republican governor completed his comeback to win the House of Representatives seat vacated by Sen. Tim Scott.
Meghan McCain went on a Twitter rant following Sanford’s win, accusing his supporters of hypocrisy. In 2009, while serving as governor of the Palmetto State, Sanford disappeared for several days before it was discovered he had flown to Argentina to see a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair. He was later censured by the state legislature for misuse of public funds and his 20-year marriage broke up.
In a series of tweets, McCain attacked Republicans who supported Sanford but oppose same-sex marriage:
Any republican that voted for Mark Sanford in South Carolina but is against gay marriage is an unbelievable hypocrite.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 8, 2013
Really republicans? We’re gonna get behind Mark Sanford and claim gay couples will ruin marriage. This is why young people don’t vote GOP!!!
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 8, 2013
That’s right, go apeshit on my feed, right wing extremists.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 8, 2013
In a tweet she subsequently deleted without explanation, McCain said Sanford is what is wrong with American politics.
Despite McCain’s rage about Sanford’s defeat of Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, her father’s political action committee gave money to Sanford.
According to an April 20 report from Roll Call’s Kent Cooper, the Sanford for Congress committee received $2,500 on April 18 from Sen. John McCain’s leadership PAC, Country First PAC.
But the mixed messages don’t stop there for the daughter of the Arizona senator. Back in 2009, McCain argued that Sanford’s private life “just isn’t relevant to his role as a public official” in a column headlined “Forgive Mark Sanford” that appeared in the Daily Beast.
“I, for one, lean more toward compassion and understanding—yes, even if Governor Sanford had been a Democrat—because I know from personal experience the pressure of perfection that is put on politicians and their families,” McCain wrote. “At the end of the day, a politician’s job is to fix our country and take care of the states and constituents they represent. Yes, sex is an issue but it shouldn’t be the only issue.”
