Meghan McCain criticized members of both parties after a contentious Coronavirus Select Committee hearing devolved into a shouting match.
McCain responded to the hearing, which took place Thursday, during Friday’s broadcast of “The View.” “Congress has a 61% disapproval rating for a reason,” she said, arguing that the confrontation — which involved White House senior medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters and committee chair James Clyburn — ultimately made them all look bad. (RELATED: ‘Respect The Chair And Shut Your Mouth’: Maxine Waters Interrupts Tense Exchange With Dr. Fauci To Scold Jim Jordan)
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Joy Behar began the segment with a clip from the hearing, which began with a contentious exchange between Jordan and Fauci and quickly devolved to Jordan yelling at Clyburn and Waters, in turn, yelling at Jordan to “respect the Chair and shut your mouth.”
“Meghan, what did you make of that exchange between Jim Jordan and Maxine — and Clyburn too?” Behar asked.
“I think Congress has a 61% disapproval rating for a reason. I think all of them looked bad. I think it’s beneath Congress and, you know, the issues about liberty and freedom, I think it’s easy to just say that Republicans are being contrarian,” McCain replied.
McCain went on to argue that, to Jordan’s point about liberty, the pandemic had been politicized and the “rules” seemed in many cases to be arbitrary.
“I decided to use in California when you look at the draconian lockdowns that [Democratic Gov.] Gavin Newsom took to such an extent that have absolutely savaged small business owners. There’s a video that went viral of a woman who is hysterically crying outside her bar and she’s showing at her bar — it should be locked down and she shouldn’t be open because it’s not safe. Literally right directly in front of her is a movie set open where there’s tables set up for people to have lunch,” McCain said. “You’re telling me that’s not political, because it was more important according to Gavin Newsom to have movies open than small bars and small businesses at the same time he’s going and eating with his friends at the French Laundry inside, indoors, not wearing masks?”
“The term ‘rules for thee and not for me’ became popular because there were so many governors and elected officials who were doing and behaving in ways that were not on the rules they were telling the American public to do,” McCain continued. “People — Republicans are contrarian. They are skeptical of big government. That is who we are. It’s in my DNA and makeup to question authority and question government because we think big government is bad. We don’t think that bending the knee to big government overlords is the answer to everything. That is an innate philosophical difference between Democrats and Republicans. Unfortunately the virus and vaccine have become politicized, but to lay the blame at the feet of Republicans is just intellectually dishonest.”
“Listen, I know there’s a difference between the two parties,” Behar pushed back, arguing that blaming Fauci wasn’t the answer either. “Why blame Fauci? Your argument is against government not Fauci. He’s just a scientist trying to do his job.”