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The View in Review

Meghan McCain Rips 'Disgusting' Treatment of Tim Scott: 'It's OK to Use Racial Slurs If He's a Republican'

"Don't talk to me about the problems we have in this country with racism when it's okay to treat a Black man this way."
  • Meghan McCain discussed Tim Scott's GOP response to Biden's address Thursday on The View (ABC)
    Meghan McCain discussed Tim Scott's GOP response to Biden's address Thursday on The View (ABC)

    Sparks flew Thursday morning on The View when Meghan McCain tore into Democrats for their "disgusting" treatment of Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who gave the GOP response to President Biden's joint address to Congress last night. Unlike her co-hosts, McCain praised Scott's speech, and she called out Twitter users for labeling him with "racial slurs" throughout the evening. "So it's okay to be racist and use racial slurs towards Black men as long as they are Republicans?" asked the conservative firebrand. "Don't talk to me about the problems we have in this country with racism when it's okay to speak and treat a Black man this way."

    While her co-hosts applauded and criticized Biden and Scott's respective speeches, McCain diverged from the group on both accounts. "Candidly, I was really disappointed in Biden's speech," she said, explaining that her hopes for Biden to govern as a moderate have "gone out the window" with his joint address to Congress. "This is by far the most progressive speech of any modern president, I think, since LBJ. The answer to every single problem in the United States of America is to write a check and bankrupt my generation in the process."

    "He's shown that he's going to make his mark and be the most progressive president of my lifetime," McCain continued, "And it is very disappointing to the people who had faith in him for running as a centrist."

    The conservative then turned her attention to Sen. Tim Scott, who she described as the "bright future of the Republican party." McCain praised the lone Black Republican senator for pointing to his personal history and citing "policy reasons why he's a Republican," before dinging Democrats for dismissing his speech almost immediately. "In response, [Scott] was trending on Twitter being called 'Uncle Tom' and 'Uncle Tim,' which I and many Americans consider a racial slur," she said.

    "I'm disgusted by the response to him. Hit him on policy if you have policy problems with him. But the way he is being talked about, the way he is being disrespected, don't talk to me about microaggressions with race in this country," she ripped. "It's okay to treat him that way. It's okay for Twitter to let it trend for 11 hours, which is supposed to be against their policies and standards. It's okay to let it trend against Sen. Scott -- I don't believe it would have happened if he were a Democrat."

    The panel largely ignored McCain's monologue, but after the commercial break, Whoopi Goldberg finally stepped in to set the record straight. "I want to start off by saying for those of us who don't live in the Twitterverse -- we're used to seeing that kind of horrendous behavior, and you don't know who it is. You don't know whether the person is Black or white or female. You don't know who it is. So, I tend to stay away from things like that," said The View's longtime moderator. "But people are talking about, 'Well, if that's how you're going to act towards one guy, you shouldn't talk about racism.' Well, you should because we've seen it for four years directed at various people, various kinds of people. So, racism is alive and well in this country."

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    Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.

    TOPICS: The View, Joe Biden, Meghan McCain, politics