Meghan McCain: 'Trump Didn't Break My Brain. What's Your Excuse?'

Reason's Billy Binion speaks with political pundit and podcaster Meghan McCain.

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Meghan McCain: 'Trump Didn't Break My Brain. What's Your Excuse?'

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Today's guest is Meghan McCain, political commentator, former co-host of ABC's The View, and host of the podcast Citizen McCain.

Reason's Billy Binion talks with her about the changing GOP, bias in corporate media, the 2024 election, and what it's like to be a non-MAGA, nonpopulist member of today's Republican Party.

0:00- Introduction
0:21- Ad: St. John's College
1:36- Libertarians vs. the McCains
3:33- Being a non-MAGA, non-populist conservative
6:56- Obama lecturing black male voters
9:38- Kamala Harris' terrible press strategy
11:07- Meghan McCain does not have TDS
19:14- John McCain also didn't have TDS
25:34- Who wins 2024? Trump or Harris?
27:15- McCain's Republican Party
30:22- Bipartisan Write-A-Check politics
34:10- The gerontocracy & Biden's disastrous debate performance
39:52- The Democratic Party has big problems too
44:14- The CBS Ta-Nehisi Coates/Tony Dokoupil meltdown
51:06- Corporate legacy media is collapsing
55:14- Recovering from The View
1:02:47- Kari Lake traded her principles for failure
1:08:00- Being an early public supporter of gay marriage
1:12:24- 'America, You Sexy Bitch: A Love Letter To Freedom'
1:13:53- 'Nepo babies' contain multitudes!

Today's sponsors:

• St. John's College. Explore 3,000 years of human thought on campuses in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in Annapolis, Maryland. From the Greek philosophers who are the wellspring of democratic ideals to America's Founding Fathers to contemporary critics who question everything: Each is welcome at St. John's College. In-person and online master's degree courses are offered, too.
• The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly unscripted discussion in midtown New York City that doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie. The next one is on Thursday, October 24, and features the Stony Brook sociologist Musa al-Gharbi, whose new book is We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. Tickets are $15 and include beer, wine, soft drinks, and light food. For more information and to buy tickets, go here. To watch or listen to past Speakeasys, go here.

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

Comments

[Mother's Lament]

1:14:07- Meghan McCain does have TDS
1:15:14- John McCain knew the Steele Report was a concoction of the Hillary campaign and lied about it's veracity because Trump had slammed and ran against the great Neocon project. This led to billions of dollars wasted and millions of morons tricked.

[mad.casual]

1:14:07"Trump didn't break my brain."- Meghan McCain does have TDS

You know what I *wasn't* sitting here thinking? What does Meghan McCain (not) think about Donald Trump? That's what I wasn't thinking.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I never thought she had much of a brain to begin with.

[MoreFreedom]

With her mom's monopoly on liquor distribution in AZ and John bringing in the dough from his government job and friends, I'm thinking she can afford to spend her time promote her views regardless of what others think. I'll also remember how it was McCain's vote near his death that saved Obamacare, after he promised many times to get rid of it. He was a bipartisan of the wrong kind, working with statists on both sides of the aisle rather than for the people.

[Pear Satirical (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

[Zeb]

So not TDS, just defending the deep state and MIC by whatever means. I'm going to say that's just as bad if not even worse. But I think I agree it wasn't derangement. Just playing dirty.

[sarcasmic]

what it's like to be a non-MAGA, nonpopulist member of today's Republican Party.

Like having leprosy?

[Don't look at me!]

Ideas!

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Fuck off, Drunky Brewster.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Sarc - I'm not a neocon democrat!!!

Also sarc - why can't we have the McCain and cheneys in power.

[n00bdragon]

What is a neocon democrat? Are the democrats conservatives now? Are the conservatives democrats? If the democrats are conservative, are the Republicans liberal?

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

They are part of the same uniparty globalhomo group

[DesigNate]

It’s used as shorthand for the warmongering MIC simps.

[Mother's Lament]

"Like having leprosy?" - Sarc's ex-wife on the stand.

[ravenshrike]

Hey Reason, when are you going to write an article about how the FBI just stealthily "revised" the 2022 crime numbers showing that instead of declining by 2.1% it rose by 4.5%?

[damikesc]

Too local.

[Rick James]

HA! I came here to post this.

Crime down, FBI statistics which don't include some of the US's MAJOR cities says so. Facts! Grandma had her sprinkler stolen off the front lawn! MAGA PANIC!

[ravenshrike]

Yeah, it's not like the FBI somehow underestimated murders by over 1000 or anything. Oh wait...

[middlefinger]

It’s like the Aurora Co Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment buildings. It’s only a handful. A handful of murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults, nothing to see here move along.

‘It’s all a figment of your imagination’ Mcdreamy

[Incunabulum]

No, they're going to continue to claim that crime is actually going down - because the FBI numbers . . .

Like they've been doing for all their articles. Where the claim is the numbers are totally reliable, no one's been under-reporting because cops just aren't responding to calls anymore, and the FBI, unlike the DoL, would never stoop to releasing lies pleasing to the administration (we have so many more jobs1!11!) and then retracting them a few months later when no one will notice.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Funny you should mention the FBI numbers…….

https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2024/10/16/fbi-revised-figures-violent-crime-up-4-5-under-biden-harris-in-2022/

FTA:
The updated FBI data for 2022 shows there were 1,699 more murders than originally reported, 7,780 more rapes, over 33,000 more robberies, and over 37,000 more aggravated assaults.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Gee, I sure have they weren’t “mistaken” about the 2023 numbers.

[Super Scary]

Who cares? Didn't you hear that the founder of a grocery store is retiring?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

That was particularly lame. Maybe Liz had a mini stroke.

[mad.casual]

I had my fingers crossed for "reminiscing about a teen lesbian crush on Kennedy." Bow-chica-bow-wow!

[DesigNate]

I’m sure the numbers for illegal voting are what the government has told us they are! - Fiona

[shadydave]

Nice hat, Billy.

In any event, I find people like John McCain fascinating. To seamlessly shift between hero and villain without actually really changing. I realize I might get pushback, but McCain was dropped straight into hell and performed about as admirably as any human could expect to.

Also the number of innocent people who died because of him is a hell of a lot more than OJ Simpson, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy combined.

I suspect that in our prisons convicted murderers engage in acts of kindness and decency on a regular basis. It's like human beings have this shutoff valve to extinguishes their capacity for empathy and then eventually it turns back on.

Whatever your opinion of Trump, there are plenty of people who have come out and vouched for the guy in the strongest way possible. Mike Tyson, for example, is ride or die for the guy. Seems like "doing what they think is right" causes people to commit acts of both good and evil.

You would think Meghan McCain of all people would understand this concept more than most, but unfortunately she appears to have inherited her mom's lack of brains.

[R Mac]

John McCain also didn’t have TDS

What was his reason for voting against repealing Obamacare?

Edit: I’m sure Binion asked this follow up, right?

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Forget the vote - What was his reason for the childish Thumbs Down ?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

He is the one who pushed the Steele Report to State and the FBI.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

To be fair, Trump did dunk on her father big-time, so that wasn't particularly a surprise as far as McCain's response. I didn't like it because it basically fucked over the GOP's attempt to end Obamacare, which had been one of the main planks of the Tea Party Reps, but I understood it.

And it's not the first time the accommodationists of the GOP had stabbed their rank and file in the back, either, so McCain wasn't exactly setting a precedent there. Honestly, it was really the latest in a long line of incidents where he and Reps like him deliberately cut the party's legs out, which is why they aren't running the party anymore.

[middlefinger]

Obamacare- he most likely invested in healthcare stocks and made a fortune from that crony POS law.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Why would Binion think that readers of a (allegedly) libertarian magazine would give a shit what John McCain’s fat daughter thinks about anything?

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

She has fat tits, and that’s nice

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Most fat people, including guys, have tits. Not actually nice.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

If that’s the standard, he should have interviewed Sydney Sweeney, about anything. Or just asked her to do jumping jacks for half an hour while wearing a tank top.

She would likely be more informative than ‘I’ll have dessert!’ McCain.

[shadydave]

Sydney Sweeney would be a far better interview. Sydney has gotten herself work, lots of work. She's learned a skill, She works hard at being in shape, and she has, AFAIK, generally not spouted off about things she knows nothing about.

On that score, Meghan McCain is 0 for 4. I would vote for Sydney Sweeney over at least 90% of the people in Congress.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

The interview might be interesting outside of her being hot. Her parents are staunch conservatives and Trump supporters. She took a lot of shit over that. With many in the Hollywood community demanding that she disown them over their politics. She had the guts to tell them to fuck off.

They’re a nice family too. I’ve met her dad a few times over the years. Which I only recently realized. Sadly, I’ve never met her. Although we did attend one of the same schools here, a few decades apart.

[mad.casual]

She works hard at being in shape

Have you seen the ‘transformation’ for the upcoming biopic? Ultimately, I’ll probably never forgive her if it ruins the the peerless cleavage and other assets we’ve all come to know.

That said, she looks like she overshot by a couple of weight classes but that she could whip the boxer she’s supposed to be playing.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Eh, I'm not going to give her shit for that. Actors have done a lot worse to themselves physically to fit into roles, and she's using what clout and leverage she has now to find parts she's really interested in playing, as opposed to whatever the sex pest movie moguls want her to do.

She's got more than enough self-awareness to realize her body and looks are paying her bills right now, she's not going to abandon that money wagon.

[mad.casual]

She’s got more than enough self-awareness to realize her body and looks are paying her bills right now, she’s not going to abandon that money wagon.

Not giving her shit, and agreed regarding work ethic (half my point) and self-awareness.

Just, having put on and taken off my fair share of weight over the years, I know not everything always goes back to the way it was, sometimes you don't find out until afterwards, and am lamenting portentous outcomes and potential losses for any given roll of the dice.

[Minadin]

Why does it seem that every token "conservative" on The View turns out to be a complete fraud?

[Zeb]

Something about cocktail parties?

[Nobartium]

Ideological tests are 100% effective when the left performs them.

[Mickey Rat]

The Overton awinfow is shifted so far to Left in the showrunner's offices that this is what they think a mainstream conservative looks like.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

“the Limited Government Republican Party of your Dad’s Era” ….
The author of McCain-Feingold

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

The promoter of every war.

[Uncle Jay]

Meghan McStain is the very epitome of a closet democrat.
No sane person is going to listen to her gibberish.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Does she even have a following? Who is out there saying “I sure wish Meghan McCain would weigh in on this. I value her opinion.”?

One thing in her defense. No one can reasonably refer to her as a lightweight.

[middlefinger]

That’s a heavy quip at the end.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Robby better watch out--Billy's clearly mogging for Rob's Reason Hair Heavyweight Championship Belt, now held for a record 12 years.

If Billy starts stealing Robby's fruit sushi from the staff fridge, we'll know "Hair Vs. Hair" match in a steel cage won't be far behind.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Once again a real life celebrity death match would solve innumerable issues. The founders utilized dueling for exactly that reason. Of course neither Billy nor Robby are celebrities. Except in their own minds.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Perhaps Robby and Billy could get their stylists and have a hair primping duel. Or just a contest to see who is prettier.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I still maintain that Robby needs to find a hair product sponsor to shill during his news clips. That dude's got one of the best manes in the business.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

The Koch libertarian love for the McCains is a real head scratcher. Remember when John mercifully departed the planet and descended into his special place in Hell? That may have saved as many lives as my childhood dream of killing baby Hitler would have. But Reason served up a week of heartfelt eulogies. Weird.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Are you saying John McCain is in Hell eternally roasting in the same kind of inferno to which he subjected his navy comrades on that aircraft carrier?

[Incunabulum]

Everybody talks about killing Hitler - but if you go back further and killed Pricip, you could have prevented WW1 altogether.

With the plus that a) WW2 doesn't happen (the conditions for Hitler's rise are predicated on the embarrassment of the conditions of surrender) *and* you probably prevent the Communist revolutions (brought on by the embarrassment of the Tsar's army's performance in WW1), preventing the Soviet Union and Red China, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

And maybe all those Bolsheviks and Mensheviks would have been wiped out early. So no modern democrat party here.

[mad.casual]

No Hitler, no V2. No V2, no space program. No space program, no microprocessors. No microprocessors, no ARPANET. No ARPANET, no Twitter Files collusion regarding deaths with/of a completely novel virus of irrefutable zoonotic origin…

Weird how the last half century of post-modern, secular, moral relativism does kinda come out in the wash.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Misek and JFree would have to deal with an extra 6+ millions Jews in the world.

[Beezard]

“There were never that many Jews in existence and they lied about the nazis ever being able to exterminate them! Which is why we should totally exterminate them now!”

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

I’ve been wondering if Misek is an Islamist. Maybe he’s just a neo Nazi. In any event, he obviously has a lot to hide.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

My way back machine isn't that powerful. To do WW1 you need one that goes up to 11.

[Morbo]

WWI would have happened anyway, it just would have been something else that set it off. Several nations were spoiling for a fight, and the assassination was just their excuse.

[Ersatz]

^this^
some things are just gonna happen

[Alphonse Gaston]

First GB gun control law was to keep the Tommies, trained to arms by the war, from emulating the Bolsheviks and taking over. So Brits might be as armed as we are now.

[edbeau99]

She spent a lot of time complaining about Trump's nasty comments (which is understandable). But what about how the Democrats portrayed her father in the 2008 election? Repeatedly making fun of his inability to use a keyboard (due to the catastrophic damage done to his hands and arms by North Vietnamese torturers) or the photo shoot where the photographer afterwards added fangs with dripping blood to his face? Was that all okay because it wasn't a Republican doing it?

[Uomo Del Ghiaccio]

These politicians are members of the Silent Generation who are even older than Boomers. Please stop accusing Boomers for hanging on to office too long and then us a Silent Generation as the example.

Senators:
Chuck Grassley (R-IA) - Born in 1933
Bernie Sanders (I-VT) - Born in 1941
Mitch McConnell (R-KY) - Born in 1942

Representatives:
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) - Born in 1940
Hal Rogers (R-KY) - Born in 1937
Grace Napolitano (D-CA) - Born in 1936
Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) - Born in 1937

I agree that most Boomers should be either retired or seriously considering retiring, but younger generations are guilty of having a double standard in their attempt to blame the Boomer Generation of everything. Boomers are no different than any other generation other than being more populous.

My problem with John McCain is that other than voting against the 1983 Lebanon War Powers Act, he was a strong proponent of military interventions and voted as such. Far too much of a War-Hawk for me.

I didn't vote for Trump nor Harris, but understanding that one of them with a 99.99999% certainty will become the next president. Looking that the two horrible choices, Trump is far less dangerous considering that there will be a hostile corporate media and Harris will come with a fawning sycophantic corporate media.

Also considering their track records for the previous Trump presidency and the Biden presidency of which Harris is a member of and can't think of a single thing that she would have done differently; is a clear illustration of Trump being more or less restrained at every step versus the corporate media being complicit activists is what has been arguably one of the very worst presidencies in history.

Even though I'm an independent, I'm not blind to the reality that there is a double standard. It's not even hidden like it was 40 years ago, but rather overt and out in the open. It is astounding of the lack of shame that the corporate media has.

Over the years, I've vacillated between which party is more dangerous based on the players including politicians, corporate media and societal pressures. At this moment in time, MAGA is not the threat, not the answer either, but not the threat. The real threat is the current state of the "New" Democrat party and the ruling elitists.

MAGA is a populist reaction to the actions the current state of the Democrat party and the ruling elitists. I'm sure that if MAGA ever gains the nearly complete power that the "New" Democrat party and ruling elitists have, that MAGA will over compensate.

However, there isn't much of a chance that MAGA will ever get the same level of dominance that the "New" Democrat party and ruling elitists have and even if possible it would take generations.

MAGA is more anti-war than the Neocon-centric Republican party when John McCain was a member, which in my opinion is a good thing. The "New" Democrat party has exposed itself as the home for displaced Neocons including the vile warmongering Cheney family.

Even though I despise Trump and find his antics repulsive, he is far better than the vapid puppet and her evil handlers. Proof that Harris is a complete disaster is that Tim Walz was her VP pick, her lack of a taking a stance and residing in the fuzzy, inability to answer any question without deflecting, or the amount of hand-holding the corporate media provides.

It feels like we the people are being manipulated by the media. Then the agencies that produce reports with glowing numbers only to be dramatically revised in the dark with zero fan-fair. It would be one thing if this was an isolated incident, but there is an astounding pattern. And not just a few occasions, but an astonishing number of times. I take offense to their attempts to manipulate us.

Tim Walz has a deep tyrannical streak using bait and switch pretending (often called lying) to be something that he is not. I know first hand of his deceit as I thought that he would be better than the previous governor who was exhibiting some psychological issues. Minnesota under Tim Walz is an example of what not to do. During Covid, he was one of the worst examples of an authoritarian governor with a terrible track record killing off seniors in rest homes by housing Covid patients there. Most people only know of Andrew Cuomo, but Tim Walz did the same.

Then there is George Floyd, where the liberal Democrat mayor begged for National Guard support during the riots, but Tim Walz slow walked the request until a large swath of the area was torched. I suppose that Tim Walz was just trying to keep his wife happy by allowing her more days of smelling the smoke from the burning of Black owned establishments.

[Alphonse Gaston]

John McCain treated Keating's jet as his own private airline, and took the fam to Keating's Bahamas resort whenever he could. ProPublica would have had a field day. I figure the only way he survived the Keating Five scandal was by playing the POW card -- John Glenn had the astronaut card.