Meghan McCain slams 'cowardice' GOP response to Trump's Democrat congresswomen tweets
Conservative co-host of "The View" Meghan McCain spoke out against Sen. Lindsey Graham's support of President Donald Trump's attacks against progressive Democratic congresswomen on Monday.
"This is what people think all conservatives are now, and we are not," McCain said, adding that "the cowardice" she's seeing from Republicans not speaking out "is embarrassing."
On Sunday, Trump tweeted that "'Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen" "originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe," adding that those female lawmakers should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done."
On "Fox & Friends" Monday morning, Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, declined to denounce Trump's comments and instead called New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and "this crowd" of freshman lawmakers "a bunch of communists" that "hate Israel" and "hate our own country." He went on to say that he thinks "they're American citizens duly-elected running on an agenda that is disgusting, that the American people will reject."
McCain, who said she used to see Graham as an "uncle," said that regardless of "whatever is happening to Lindsey" right now, "this is not the person I used to know."
"My sister wasn't born here. She's as American in every way as I am and everybody else," said McCain of her adopted sister Bridget, who was born in Bangladesh.
"She also has been subjected to many racist political campaigns, which by the way, Lindsey Graham, you were present for. I remember seeing you there when it happened," McCain said. "Seeing you on 'Fox & Friends' was particularly hurtful."
McCain noted that she feels there are some "legitimate criticisms" one can make about the "squad" of freshmen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
"I have never gotten more heat in my entire career in my entire life than I have for the criticism of congresswoman Omar's stance on Israel," McCain said. "Stick to the politics."
"The problem is you're making this about race. You're making this about racism. You're making this about what's truly American, and it's all these old racist dog whistles that have plagued this country for so long," she said of Graham's comments.
A frustrated McCain said that "it can't just be me and Geraldo" -- referencing Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera, who voiced his disapproval of Trump's remarks on Twitter -- rebuking Trump's comments.
"Someone has to come out against this. This is petrifying," she said, adding, "It's humiliating for me on TV right now. Someone has to say something other than me and Geraldo."
"Let's stick to issues & steer clear of language that's xenophobic even racist. @POTUS you're better than that," Rivera had written.
"The View" co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin also spoke out against the president's attacks on progressive Democratic congresswomen.
"This is very dangerous. You don't want to be telling people to go back to their country because if we gotta go, you're going too," Goldberg said Monday.
"If you are not Native American, you don't belong here either," Goldberg added. "They're the first Americans. The rest of us – whether we got here on top of the boat or beneath the boat – we all got here from somewhere else."
Hostin called attention to the number of users on Twitter that liked Trump's tweet. "What does that say about those people and the people we live with every single day in our country?" she said.
Hostin recalled a story from her childhood where her grandmother was told to go back to where she came from after speaking to Hostin in Spanish in an effort to teach her the language.
"I remember being told, 'Go back to Africa,' and all this nonsense," she said. "I thought, 'Those people are just hateful and ignorant and racist.' I never thought a day would come when I would hear that from the president of the United States of America. Ever."
On the silence from a large majority of the Republican Party regarding Trump's comments, Behar said that "the Republican leadership is disgraceful right now."
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