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‘I Know What A Torture Facility Looks Like’: Meghan McCain Blasts Detention Center Comparisons

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Meghan McCain took issue Tuesday with recent comparisons for migrant detention centers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I know what a torture facility looks like. I’ve been to one,” McCain said, talking over co-host Joy Behar during the opening segment of ABC’s “The View.”

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Responding to a widely-shared video of a Trump administration attorney arguing that the government was not obligated to provide certain toiletries and supplies to migrants in detention, co-host Sunny Hostin argued that this administration “didn’t care” about the people.

Behar asserted that racism was a factor, claiming that these issues would never have arisen if the migrants were Norwegian.

McCain jumped in, saying that she agreed the conditions were horrible.

She then continued: “Calling these places torture facilities. I understand it’s a humanitarian crisis. It’s horrific to detain — like you said, people in jail get soap and toothpaste. But I know what a torture facility looks like. I’ve been to one. I know —”

“But this is —” Behar interrupted.

“Listen to me. Excuse me,” McCain shot back. “When you have a facility whose specific purpose is to torture people, that is not what’s going on. Yes, it’s inhumane but there’s a big difference between a Hanoi Hilton and —” (RELATED: ‘My Father Was His Kryptonite’: Meghan McCain Launches Tirade Against Trump)

Hostin pressed again. “We should be less concerned about what we’re calling them and what goes on inside of them. I don’t care what we’re calling them. Kids are dying inside of them. We should care about the dead kids that have come out of them.”

“Well, my father couldn’t lift me above his head as a child because of his torture wounds so I do think that hyperbole is important,” McCain concluded, referencing the permanent physical damage done to the late Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain as the result of torture following his capture during the Vietnam War.