Speaking with “Late Night” host Seth Meyers on Tuesday night, “The View” host Meghan McCain, fed-up with Meyers consistently badgering her about her criticism of anti-Semitic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), torpedoed Meyers with one blunt question: “Are you her publicist?”
Before McCain slammed him to the canvas, Meyers, who consistently interrupted McCain, pressed her over and over about her criticism of Omar, claiming Omar had “unequivocally apologized” for her anti-Semitic language, a highly dubious claim, as shown here, and a claim that holds little water considering subsequent comments she made. When McCain brought up Omar’s comments about 9/11, Meyers protested that they were taken out of context.
The exchange went like this:
Meyers: I wanna ask about Ilhan Omar, the congressman from Minnesota, you were very vocal about some of her tweets. People were upset, thought it was anti-Semitic language. She has since unequivocally apologized for them. And then after that, there was this tragic synagogue shooting in California, and you once again sort of, on a Sunday news show, brought up her tweets again in the context of that shooting.
McCain: On George Stephanopoulos.
Meyers: On George Stephanopoulos, yeah. And I just wonder, ‘cause I do think it’s fairly dangerous, and you brought it up after Congresswoman Omar also had some death threats against her; do you think, y’know, she’s obviously now stated she needs to be more careful with her language, don’t you think other people who talk about her need to be little more thoughtful as well or do you stand by those comments of tying her rhetoric to the synagogue shooting?
McCain: I don’t think I tied her to it in particular; I think that I’m calling out what I see as anti-Semitic language, and when you’re talking about —
Meyers: But even after you called her out she apologized for it, right? I do want to establish the timeline.
McCain: I think Democrats are hedging on this and I think it’s very dangerous, and I think Chuck Schumer and I are in alignment about Israel’s stance in geopolitical politics; I think it’s of the utmost importance. And I think she is bringing her party to the extreme, extremism on this, and I think we have to look to Europe and what’s happening over there , and that in British politics, anti-Semitism is very common. And I see it happening over there and I worry about it happening over here. And I stand by every single thing I’ve said, and if that makes me unpopular in this room, or in front of you, so be it.
Meyers: See, that’s a weird thing that you would take the position of trying to be unpopular, here I am trying to, you know, find the common ground on this.
McCain: Were you bothered by her language about 9/11?
Meyers: I thought it was taken out of context and if you watch that whole speech —
McCain: Would you give President Trump the same leverage if he had said the same thing?
Meyers: Well, I would say that Donald Trump is certainly in no position to criticize her language on 9/11, based on the things that he said about 9/11, right?
McCain: But would you give, I just think you have to give people the same credence and I think
Meyers: Well, let me make the clarification between Donald Trump and Ilhan Omar is that one of them has apologized and said they’re going to try to do better and they’re going to be educated who know about this, that’s what she said. You know, it’s an interesting thing when we have two Muslim women for the first time; they do have a different perspective on things, and I think when we talk about, the idea of, like, let’s all try to meet in the middle on things, we have to listen to other people’s perspectives.
McCain: Oh, I agree, I work on The View with Joy Behar every day. I listen to other people —
Meyers: Is there a way for people to talk about differences in Israeli policy without getting framed as anti-Semitic language?
McCain: Yeah, I just think you can’t talk about Jews “hypnotizing the world,” talking about “all about the Benjamins.”
Meyers: You do keep talking about the two tweets that she’s apologized for and I think that’s a little unfair to her, especially since we’ve established.
McCain: Are you her publicist?
Meyers, stunned: What?
McCain: Are you her press person?
Meyers: No, I’m just someone who cares about the fact that there’s someone out there who’s in a minority, who’s had death threats against her, and I think we should all use the same language that you’re asking her to be careful about her language, and I would ask everybody else to be careful about theirs.
McCain: What would make you happy to have coming out of my mouth right now? I’m genuinely curious.
Meyers: I’m perfectly happy with everything that’s coming out of your mouth right now and I like that we spent this time together.
Video below: