Though a critic of former President Donald Trump, The View co-host Meghan McCain frequently expresses her conservative viewpoints on the renowned talk show, often to distinguish so-called traditional Republicans from the aggressive, far-right wing of the party that Trump embodied.
Such was the case when hosts discussed Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Monday's broadcast.
Greene made waves during the 2020 election season for her prior support of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which hinges on the delusion that Trump was sent to expose a covert network of satanic cannibal pedophiles secretly controlling the United States government.
If that weren't enough, the public has seen an onslaught of resurfaced social media posts and videos in which Greene expresses support for the execution of her now-colleagues, and endorses deranged conspiracy theories.
Among these theories are unhinged lies that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton murders children and drinks their blood, that school shootings are coordinated by Democrats to weaken support for the Second Amendment, and that the devastating California wildfires were started by space lasers unleashed by the wealthy Rothschild family.
Though House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called Greene's prior comments "disturbing" earlier this month and vowed to have a "conversation" with her, Greene's beliefs before her election and her behavior since becoming a United States representative have largely gone unchecked in any substantive way by her party.
In fact, Greene was assigned to the House Committee on Education and Labor and continues to tout Trump's support.
But when The View hosts discussed Greene's antics on Monday, McCain sided with Democrats' calls to strip Greene of her committee assignments, but lamented that the negative coverage of her was being used to indict the Republican party as a whole. McCain warned that this would prompt "traditional Republicans" to embrace her radicalism out of resentment for Democrats and the media.
Watch below.
McCain said:
"I do 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, and this is becoming very tribal and I would argue that this is how we got Trump in the first place, is that there's just no nuance in it."
McCain's calls on the media to draw a distinction between Greene and traditional Republicans may have been better received if the Republican party had been willing to first make this distinction itself.
Instead, Greene received a glowing endorsement from Trump, even when her support for QAnon was already known. Last November, McCarthy falsely claimed that Greene had denounced her QAnon beliefs, and urged Americans to give her a chance, crediting her election as a testament to the "very diverse" viewpoints within the GOP.
In fact, House Republicans have done more to condemn Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) for voting in favor of Trump's second impeachment after the Capitol riots than they have against Greene for supporting the execution of her colleagues.
A resolution to expel Greene from Congress, brought forth by Congressman Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), is almost certain to fail due to a lack of Republican support. House Democrats have introduced a measure to strip Greene of her committee assignments, because House Republican leadership has, as of now, failed to do so on its own.
People pointed out that the GOP hasn't offered any substantive condemnation of Greene and that it's given the public almost no reason to believe it doesn't stand with Greene's lunacy.
It didn't take long for people to poke holes in McCain's logic.
McCarthy is expected to discuss Greene's antics with her this week, but it's unclear if this will lead to any substantive action.
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