Politics

Meghan McCain Blasts Joy Behar For Introducing Kyrsten Sinema As A ‘So-Called Democrat’

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Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Meghan McCain said Tuesday that “The View” co-host Joy Behar was being “disrespectful” to Democratic Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

Behar criticized Sinema for standing firm on preserving the Senate filibuster, arguing that she was helping Republicans to stand in the way of Democratic agenda items like voting reform. (RELATED: Meghan McCain Says Attacks On Manchin Suggest Democrats Would ‘Rather Have A Republican’ In His Seat)

WATCH:

“So-called Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema is siding with Republicans yet again by saying the Senate needs to keep the filibuster or else any bill presented by the Democrats now will be overturned by the Republicans when they get power back,” Behar began, turning to co-host Ana Navarro.

Navarro agreed that Sinema had a point, noting that it had backfired on Democrats when former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had opted for the “nuclear option” in 2013.

“A few years later Harry Reid was in the minority. Democrats were in the minority. Mitch McConnell was in the majority,” Navarro said. “He used … the lowered threshold to do things like get Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court and pack the courts with Trump nominees. So it’s true. What you do today when you’re in the majority could very well be used against you tomorrow when you might be in the minority.”

Navarro went on to claim that Democrats held themselves to a higher standard and that if Republicans were in power they would be changing regulations to force their agenda through — despite the fact that Republicans did not do away with the filibuster when they held the majority in the Senate in order to push former President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Behar turned to McCain to ask about a recent poll and public support for voter ID laws.

McCain noted that a majority supported voter ID laws despite the prevailing narrative that requiring people to show identification to vote was “racist.”

“What’s fascinating to me is we have been told on shows like this and by many pundits on cable news that requiring an ID — to show an ID in order to vote — is akin to the Jim Crow South. These two things are basically the same,” McCain continued. “I kind of think of it like … ‘defund the police’: No matter how much it was explained, we’re seeing real concrete data that shows a huge majority of Americans in all states, not just red, but particularly in blue states where we’re seeing waves of violence and spikes in crimes right now, it’s not selling. It’s going to be a problem going into the midterms if your only narrative is Defund the Police and having an ID to vote is innately racist. Those are going to be problems for Democrats. The average American isn’t buying it.”

“And one more thing, introducing Senator Kyrsten Sinema as a ‘so-called Democrat’ is very disrespectful to her,” McCain continued, arguing that moderate Democrats like Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin were just representing their constituents. “To Democrats that continue to want to crap all over the two of them: if they are out, a Democrat’s not coming in, a Republican is. So you would rather have a Republican in the Senate rather than a moderate Democrat is what’s wrong with the Democratic party today.”