Meghan McCain said Friday that “there are no libertarians in a pandemic,” saying that when crisis hits, everyone understands the benefits of having a government that can handle it.
McCain made the comments during ABC’s “The View,” which has been broadcasting for the last several days from a studio with no audience in an effort to help contain the spread of coronavirus. (RELATED: ‘I’m In A Higher Risk Group’: Joy Behar Steps Back From ‘The View’ Amid Coronavirus Fears)
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Whoopi Goldberg began the segment by noting that a number of corporations have begun to encourage employees to take sick leave in order to contain the virus’ spread, adding, “And an op-ed in the New York Times says it’s proof that everyone’s a socialist in a pandemic.”
While cohosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin laughed, McCain said she didn’t see it quite that way. “I don’t agree with that at all,” she said. “I think no one’s a libertarian in a pandemic. Because libertarians believe in basically no government, in almost no government, and I think when you’re in a situation like this you realize there needs to be hospitals and schools and infrastructure in place that the government can run. I’m still for limited government, but I think when there’s any kind of crisis, libertarians automatically probably get a lot of hate, but that’s what I think.”
“It’s like there are no atheists in foxholes,” Behar said. “Kind of the idea. You know, when it hits that party — you know which party I’m talking about, like when Nancy Reagan’s husband got Alzheimer’s, she was suddenly for STEM cell research. Suddenly it affects you and you have a different way of looking at the world.”
Behar went on to suggest that Trump’s response to the coronavirus was being driven primarily by his “shaky” numbers. ” There was an article in the paper that this could be his Waterloo or whatever, and he doesn’t want people the think he’s not helping,” she explained.