Another day, another Meghan McCain controversy. On June 25 critics slammed The View co-host for her comments about the treatment of migrant children in detention centers on the U.S./Mexico border. Her comments came while she and her co-hosts discussed the outrage at reports that the minors are being held in unsanitary conditions and were not given access to soap and other basic hygiene tools. One physician and eyewitness, Dr. Dolly Lucio Sevier, likened the conditions the children were being held in to “torture facilities,” according to ABC News. It was this comment that McCain took issue with, because her father – the late Senator John McCain – was tortured during the Vietnam War.
“I understand it is a humanitarian crisis. It’s horrific to detain and…people in jail get toothpaste,” the 34-year-old said. “But, I know what a torture facility looks like. I’ve been to one.” As her colleague Joy Behar, 76, started to interject, McCain said, “Listen to me. Excuse me. When you have a facility whose specific purpose is to torture people that is not what’s going on. Yes, it’s inhumane, but there is a big difference between the Hanoi Hilton and what’s happening at the border right now.”
The life-changing injuries that Sen. McCain (who died in 2018, aged 81) suffered from 1967 to 1973 when he was a prisoner of war have been well-documented. In addition to being put in solitary confinement, he suffered a broken arm and cracked ribs. “Well my father couldn’t lift me up above his head as a child because of his torture wounds,” McCain noted at one point adding that’s why she thinks “hyperbole is important.”
“My father was tortured too!”
Meghan McCain shouting at a statue of Jesus.
— Mohanad Elshieky (@MohanadElshieky) June 25, 2019
Meghan McCain taking kids from their families and putting them in cages IS mental TORTURE!
— shelly 🇺🇸🌈 (@shellybarring) June 25, 2019
Behar tried to explain her view of the situation by adding, “[It] may not have intended to be a torture facility, but it has turned out to be torturous.” She also went on to add that likening these centers to “concentration camps” as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did, “puts focus” on the situation. [It] didn’t work for me as a conservative Republican,” McCain fired back.
Over on Twitter people were outraged, especially as she has been mocked for frequently mentioning her dad on the show. “’My father was tortured too!’” Meghan McCain shouting at a statue of Jesus,” one person tweeted. “This is insane,” filmmaker Adam Best wrote, “On today’s episode of The View, Meghan McCain used her dad’s time as a prisoner of war to minimize the suffering of imprisoned migrant children. For the millionth time, not everything is about you and your father.” Yet another person tweeted, “Meghan McCain taking kids from their families and putting them in cages IS mental TORTURE!”
McCain fired back at her critics on Twitter hours later. When one person asked, “Who is @meghanmccain’s father?” she responded, wryly, “Al Gore.”