Meghan McCain: Criticism of Marjorie Taylor Greene Is ‘How We Got Trump’

The View’s Meghan McCain leaned on one of her well-worn arguments Monday when it came to Democrats’ criticism of QAnon-supporting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), warning that lumping Republicans in with Greene “is how we got Trump in the first place.”

Greene, who is an ardent booster of former President Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the election was “stolen,” has been under fire the past week over recently surfaced comments and social media posts in which she endorsed the execution of prominent Democrats and peddled anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

McCain, meanwhile, has attempted to thread a needle when it comes to criticizing Greene’s behavior and unhinged rhetoric. While calling the freshman Georgia lawmaker a “total whack job conspiracy theorist,” the View’s resident conservative host has also attempted to draw false equivalences regarding any punishment Greene should face, such as comparing her to Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who was allegedly targeted by a Chinese spy in 2015.

With the GOP facing increasing pressure to reprimand or even expel Greene from the House, McCain on Monday grumbled that Republicans as a whole have been unfairly maligned due to the controversy surrounding the Georgia lawmaker. The View co-host’s conclusion was that liberals associating Republicans with Greene will push conservatives to rally around and embrace her more.

After fellow co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar both said Greene “is the Republican Party now” and the “Republican Party is the MAGA Party”—noting that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has remained silent on her—McCain retorted that this type of commentary will ultimately backfire.

“I think the more that the mainstream media continues to come out and say that all Republicans are birthers and crazy people and we believe in space lasers, then the more it makes traditional Republicans—and there’s still a lot of them in the country—go back into their corners,” she declared. “And this is becoming very tribal, and I would argue that this is how we got Trump in the first place and that there’s just no nuance in it.”

McCain, who spent much of the Trump Era warning her colleagues that their rhetoric was “how we got Trump,” went on to say that her friends who are Trump supporters don’t like Greene and “think she’s crazy.” At the same time, per McCain, many conservatives who dislike Greene will still say “screw the media” if they’re remotely compared to the freshman lawmaker.

“What’s the point of even trying to have an argument if we’re all Marjorie Taylor Greene?” McCain wondered aloud. “That’s the danger. Look. You guys know me. I know you. I’m not like Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

Even if McCain staunchly rejects racism and conspiracies, it “doesn’t matter,” she said, because Greene will take up all the attention and give the public “the wrong thing at the wrong moment.”

Whoopi Goldberg eventually jumped in to suggest that McCain’s complaint is similar to moderate Democrats’ responses when conservatives held up progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as the face of the party.

“Remember we would all say, ‘No, AOC does not represent the whole party,’” Goldberg added. “Now you—you all are getting slapped with the same kind of paintbrush.”

McCain, who quickly called for Trump to be impeached and removed for inciting the Capitol insurrection, did concede that McCarthy has done a poor job in handling the scandal around Greene.

“But the point you made in the beginning about Kevin McCarthy, in particular, I have been very surprised about how much he is vacillating on all of these issues because we’re not going to be able to play both sides,” she concluded. “We’re not going to be able to do it going forward, as you all pointed out.”