I Wish This Woman Well, But

 

Chuck Todd put Meghan McCain on his panel this morning and said "it's good to have a McCain back on Meet the Press" because we live in a constant state of right-wing propaganda pic.twitter.com/Qs75M6T3b7

— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) September 26, 2021

I have defended Meghan McCain at certain junctures because taking potshots at her figure (voluptuous, or zaftig, so, you know, I am in her corner about that) or her youth back when she was younger is just missing the point. The thing that sucks about Meghan McCain is giving credence to someone for having opinions as if those opinions matter more because they are importance-adjacent, not because they are informed. This grown woman child is now speaking as a Republican with no elected office with two exact bona fides: Senator John McCain (deceased)'s daughter and Ben Domenech (alive, propagandist)'s wife. Her expertise in politics is being a person the media pays attention to. She hasn't the least fucks whether what she says is right, and it is not.

What The Hell are You Doing? 3: CoNsErvAtIsM Edition

Reporter: Has the President ever denounced Steve King?

Sanders: He denounced him to me privately. pic.twitter.com/B5gq1bmX2q

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 11, 2019

I know Sarah Huckabee Sanders hates her job the way I hate touching the little wet bits of plate scrapings that end up stuck in the sink strainer when I do dishes. She doesn't address the press very much, and when she does, it seems a little hostile and she's pretty quick to say a lie. The above exchange isn't exactly a lie, though--it's just a deflection. But whew! Denouncing someone privately to a person whose job is to relay your message (and maybe try and make you look not-terrible) is not actually a "denunciation". An actual denunciation would be saying Steve King is a racist and what he says is not acceptable, right out loud where the people can hear. What Trump would have done if he privately let on to his press secretary that he would just rather Steve King not be so icky and embarrassing and whatnot, is a complaint. It's a wholly different, and in this case, less honorable tactic called "having it both ways". Trump would like to keep his racist cake and eat it, too.

The dishonesty of this barely touches the "infanticide" claim, though--which was made by several Republicans at CPAC and has now been repeated more than once by Sanders. (She also played about with the idea that Democrats hate Jews, which is also inflammatory and astounding.)

I do not know if the lies are the part of the job she hates, or if facing the press is the part of the job she hates, but I genuinely believe she could, if she cared to tell the truth, just do so and be fired, or fucking quit and see if someone else will let her lie to people who might not ask her annoying questions, as actual journalists do. Maybe she could teach a course in doublespeak at Liberty University or something. She just seems so unhappy, and I'm close to thinking she really damn well ought to be.