Meghan McCain ripped into Olympic hammer-thrower Gwen Berry during Tuesday’s broadcast of “The View.”
McCain argued that Berry, who turned her back on the flag during the national anthem at the track and field Olympic trials, was turning her personal grievances with her country into an international statement. (RELATED: ‘I Don’t Care That You Don’t Care’: Whoopi Goldberg Blows Up At Meghan McCain Over Biden Press Conference)
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McCain agreed with Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who said that Berry should not represent the U.S. as part of the Olympic team if she could not stand proudly when the anthem was played.
“I’ve spent the last year and a half hearing every argument possible and understanding why athletes protest in the United States of America like Colin Kaepernick,” McCain said. “The problem I have, this woman is doing this internationally.”
McCain went on to say that putting such protests on an international stage only gave more fuel to hostile foreign actors like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who could use it as propaganda against the U.S.
“We’re having our enemies and propaganda dictators using our own propaganda against us, which in turn, turns into a real national security risk,” she said.
“I don’t understand why we all can’t have shared experiences in this space or have our own stories. For some reason, my relationship with the flag isn’t allowed anymore. My love of the American flag, my love of the national anthem,” McCain added. (RELATED: ‘I’ll Change The Channel’: Jesse Watters Says Gwen Berry Took A Beautiful Team Moment And ‘Made It All About Herself’)
She then told a story about her father, the late Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, and another American who had been a prisoner of war with him in Vietnam.
“Every year on Christmas he would tell me a story about when he was in prison being tortured and his cellmate, a man named Mike Christian had sewn the American flag using scraps of material he found in prison into his prison garb, and every morning they would say the Pledge of Allegiance to what was sewn into his prison garb. One day the Vietnamese captors found that and beat the living crap out of Mike … The second he was able to move again — you want to know the first thing Mike Christian started doing? He started resewing the American flag into his prison garb so his cellmates could say the Pledge of Allegiance and remember what they were doing and what they were fighting for in prison for America,” she said.
“So excuse me if I don’t think some of these athletes are representing America in the same way, and for some of us — I will die for this. I will die on this hill: That it is not appropriate or patriotic to go to a foreign country where you’re supposed to be representing America and act like it’s just about you. It’s not about you! It’s about all of us,” McCain concluded.