Things You Didn't Know About Meghan McCain
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Meghan McCain is the daughter of U.S. Sen John McCain. Now an outspoken political pundit, Meghan rose to prominence during her dad's failed 2008 presidential bid. She accompanied him on the campaign trail and wrote about her experiences on her now-defunct blog, McCain Bloggete. She became an author, radio host, and Fox News contributor before landing a seat as a co-host on The View. Meghan filled the vacancy left by conservative commentator Jedidiah Bila, where she quickly made waves. As we continue to watch her shake up the daytime chat fest, let's take a look at some things you didn't know about Meghan McCain.
She interned at Saturday Night Live
Meghan graduated from Columbia University in 2007 with a degree in art history, but in 2004 she landed an internship at Saturday Night Live. While tons of young industry hopefuls would have died for an opportunity with the sketch comedy show, Meghan didn't find the experience all that educational or illuminating.
In an interview with Playboy, she described her role as "being a sort of office slave." She said she served as Lorne Michaels' assistant, which basically meant that she "spent most of the day getting coffee and filling up the popcorn bucket." She did happen to be there for Ashlee Simpson's infamous lip-syncing debacle, which Meghan claimed resulted in the "Pieces of Me" singer "kicking in her dressing room door." "That was interesting to watch," she remarked, before summing up her experience by saying, "I think everybody should have a crappy internship so they realize what a b***h it is getting other people's s**t work done."
Yeesh. Sounds like someone didn't get an invite to any after parties.
She started blogging during her dad's presidential bid
Fresh out of college, Meghan joined her dad's 2008 campaign along with two of her fellow "blogettes," photographer Heather Brand and producer Shannon Bae. Together they created the now-defunct McCain Blogette, which captured the lighter side of the campaign, choosing to share behind-the-scenes moments — such as Meghan chilling after a primary win with a cold beer — as well as Meghan's musings on anything from music to makeup to what kind of shoes Henry Kissinger wears.
McCain told the Los Angeles Times that she started the blog to help younger voters understand what goes on during a campaign and to "strip away the mystery with a behind-the-scenes look at her family and closed-press events."
"It's not a medium to get policy or to sell my candidate's issue," she said. "I just kind of wanted to show people that the campaign trail is messy; candidates' children aren't perfect." The Los Angeles Times reported that McCain's blog became a lightning rod for criticism, with political detractors skewering everything from its light tone to how she did, indeed, sometimes use the platform to weigh in on political controversies. For better or worse, the blog catapulted Meghan onto the world stage.
Her role during the campaign made her a celebrity
Though she admitted to Playboy that by the day before the election in 2008, she was so spent she "almost overdosed on Xanax" and that she retreated with some friends to the family cabin in Sedona, Ariz. to "play Rock Band for days and days and eat and sleep and hang out in bed watching TV," the time she put in paid off. Obviously, not in the sense that it helped her dad win the White House, but as he returned to represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate, his daughter's star continued to rise.
In early 2009, she landed a column for the Daily Beast, where her writing began to focus more sharply on politics than it ever had on her blog. Around this time, she also regularly appeared on MSNBC, which eventually led to a full-time gig in 2011, according to Deadline. Like almost every other modern political commentator, Meghan used her burgeoning status as a public figure to start selling books as well.
She didn't get along with the Palins
Meghan McCain admitted to ABC News in 2010 that she had "conflicting feelings" about Sarah Palin, which was the first time she publicly addressed the alleged friction she had with her father's running mate. Though careful to clarify that she felt Palin "brought so much momentum and enthusiasm to the campaign," Meghan previously made waves when she wrote in her book, Dirty Sexy Politics, that her father's VP choice brought "drama, stress, complications, panic and loads of uncertainty" to the campaign.
Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol Palin, swiped back at Meghan in her own book, Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far. Bristol wrote (via ABC News): "Every time we saw Meghan, she seemed to be constantly checking us out, comparing my family to hers and complaining." Bristol also took aim at the McCain family's supposedly lavish lifestyle, writing,"I'd never seen people with so much Louis Vuitton luggage, so many cell phones, and so many constant helpers to do hair and makeup."
Meghan addressed Bristol's digs during a Playboy interview. "All that stuff she wrote was a total lie. I have, like, one Louis Vuitton purse," she said. "She's just young and confused and was thrust into all this. The media aren't kind to her. But once someone signs up for Dancing With the Stars, it's hard to sympathize." Target acquired, target destroyed. Ouch.
She had a public tiff with Laura Ingraham
After accusing right-wing darling Ann Coulter of being "offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing all at the same time" in one of her Daily Beast columns, Meghan McCain drew the ire of another conservative commentator, Laura Ingraham.
According to CNN, Ingraham lashed out at McCain on her radio show, calling the senator's daughter "a Valley Girl gone awry and a plus-sized model." After absorbing backlash for those remarks and another retort from McCain via a Daily Beast column, Ingraham doubled down on her attack, blogging that Meghan is a "useful idiot" who is merely "the flavor of the month in left-wing media land because you are a Republican bashing the GOP."
McCain responded with this mic drop moment fly: "Unfortunately, even though Ingraham is more than 20 years older than I and has been a political pundit for longer, almost, than I have been alive, she responded in a form that was embarrassing to herself and to any woman listening to her radio program who was not a size 0."
She's a best-selling author
In 2008, Meghan' published the children's book, My Dad, John McCain, which made its way onto The New York Times Best Sellers list. It's described as a "first-person story of her father's Vietnam war experiences," so maybe skip that one at bedtime.
In 2010, she released Dirty Sexy Politics, a campaign memoir of sorts. In excerpts published by ABC News, Meghan pulled back the curtain on a lot of what she thought went wrong during her dad's unsuccessful bid for the White House. In her opinion, those mistakes included failing to choose either former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman or former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as a running mate instead of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
Her third tome is 2012's America, You Sexy B****: A Love Letter to Freedom. It's a collaboration with left-leaning comedian and actor, Michael Ian Black, which according to the Los Angeles Times, came about because Black got "stoned on Ambien one night and tweeted a message to [Meghan]: 'We should write a book together!'" As far as we can tell, it didn't measure up to her first book, but in fairness, what author is able to capture Vietnam War kid's book lightning in a bottle twice?
She was extremely close with her dad
You'd be hard pressed to find a fiercer supporter of the late John McCain than his daughter. She rose to his defense on countless occasions, most notably to rebuke President Trump's infamous "I like people who weren't captured" remark that was viewed as a criticism of the senator's time spent as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. But their bond is obviously far deeper than political posturing.
In a 2009 interview with talk show host Larry King, Meghan called her father "so supportive of me and my career and what I do and speaking my mind." In 2013, she told Elle, "I've never had an instance where something I've said publicly has gotten in the way of my relationship with my dad. He gave an interview a year ago where he said 'I may not agree with her but I respect her views.' That was a really wonderful thing for him to say. I'm really lucky."
When Sen. McCain when public with his cancer diagnosis in 2017, it was Meghan who tweeted a statement that said, in part, "He is a warrior at dusk, one of the greatest Americans of our age, and the worthy heir to his father's and grandfather's name. But to me he is something more. He is my strength, my example, my refuge, my confidante, my teacher, my hero — my dad."
Following her father's death on Aug. 25, 2018, Meghan released a powerful statement that said, in part: "I was with my father at his end, as he was with me at my beginning. In the thirty-three years we shared together, he raised me, taught me, corrected me, comforted me, encouraged me, and supported me in all things ... All that I am is thanks to him. Now that he is gone, the task of my lifetime is to live up to his example, his expectations, and his love."
She has tattoos
Though she's certainly not a buttoned-up conservative by any stretch of the imagination, it may surprise some people to know that Meghan's got a little ink. According to GQ, she has a "star outline on the top of her right foot," which if you think sounds a lot like a spring break decision, congratulations, you win a pat on the back. She also has a black cross tattoo on her left wrist and had planned to get matching "Live Free or Die" art with her brother, Jimmy, but "my mom wants both of us to stop," she told The New York Times.
There was a time when Meghan was seriously considering something a bit more dramatic: McCain written in Old English on her lower back. She told GQ she ended up not doing it because of the stigma attached to so-called "bull's eye tattoos," which you can go ahead and Google on your own. And just a heads up — maybe wait until you leave work for that one.
She's been body-shamed
In an interview with Forbes, Meghan revealed that she had to go to therapy to cope with the "very weird reaction" people have to her body since she became a public figure. "I think people don't understand why I haven't lost a bunch of weight right now, because all women in the media should lose a bunch of weight if they want to go on television and talk about anything," she sarcastically quipped.
One of the more notable incidents for which she's unfortunately had to address her body in public: the time she posted a cleavage-baring pic to Twitter, which resulted in her being called a "slut," according to Us Weekly. Meghan responded by threatening to quit Twitter and penning a column about body acceptance.
Conservative media figures later referenced the social media dust-up in particularly ugly ways. Right-wing blogger Dan Riehl called her "Meggie 'Big Mac' McCain" and callously remarked, "this self-indulgent set of mega-breasts doesn't belong anywhere near a TV studio commenting on anything." He wasn't the only one to pile on.
She's a strong advocate for LGBTQ rights
A longtime supporter of gay marriage, Meghan McCain has seemingly tasked herself with dragging the GOP into a more modern acceptance of LGBTQ rights. In 2010, she wrote a column for the Daily Beast called "Memo to the GOP: Go Gay," arguing that "reaching out to the gay community...is vital to the future success of the party." She also supported the NoH8 campaign protesting California's Proposition 8 amendment, which banned same-sex marriage in the state constitution. "Marriage equality is not just a Democrat or Republican issue, it is a human one," she said.
Previously a member of the board of directors of GLAAD, McCain was awarded the "Trevor Project NextGen's first Ally Award for her support of the LGBTQ community" in 2015, reported Page Six. In her acceptance remarks, she indicated that while she was proud of the country's progress regarding LGBTQ rights, she knows there's still a long fight ahead. "Marriage equality has passed, but people can still get fired...for being gay or being trans. That is not American, and that is not the America I believe in."
She's been critical of Trump
Though she has not shied away from her liberal leanings on social issues, Meghan is still a card-carrying member of the GOP. However, even as it became clear that the Republican Party would likely nominate Donald Trump as its candidate for the 2016 election, Meghan refused to board the Trump Train. In March 2016, she wrote in a column for Cosmopolitan, "Donald Trump has hijacked my party and turned it into something dark that I do not recognize." Several months later, she had not changed her mind, tweeting, "The party I was part of is dead."
Even with this ill-will in mind, Meghan did once say of Obama, "He's our president and when the election was over and when President Obama won, all negative feelings were gone. I support the president." So you would think that when her party re-took the oval office in 2016 she would have taken the same approach. This was not the case.
Meghan has been critical of Trump's supporters and described the president's alleged mockery of her father's physical ailments as "abhorrent." She also referred to Trump's many Twitter hiccups as "self-inflicted wounds" that are hindering the party's ability to pass its agenda.