Meghan McCain's Comments About Kamala Harris Have The Internet Seeing Red
The rate of new cases has slowed, the number of deaths has dropped, all signs are pointing to a probable winding down of the COVID-19 pandemic which robbed more than 536,000 people of their lives in the United States alone, while others have lost incomes, jobs, opportunities, and homes (via The New York Times). And because there now appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel, officials from the Biden administration are urging everyone to get vaccinated in order to keep the momentum towards normalcy going.
While many are eager for the opportunity to get the shot, several polls show there is still significant resistance to the vaccine among one particular demographic: Republican Trump supporters (via NBC Miami). And now The View's conservative host Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Senator John McCain, is laying the blame for vaccine reticence on a surprising person's doorstep — that of Vice President Kamala Harris. Vice President Harris continues to undertake extensive community outreach work to convince hesitant Black Americans to get vaccinated. She publicly received her first COVID-19 vaccine dose at a public Washington D.C. hospital located in a Black community, so as to showcase that such vaccines could be administered by "folks you may know" (via Los Angeles Times).
McCain, however, didn't direct her criticism towards the vice president's current outreach efforts. Rather, McCain blames Harris' actions as a vice-presidential candidate for tripping up the country's vaccination drive.
Meghan McCain went after Kamala Harris and Dr. Fauci
As proof of Kamala Harris' supposed guilt, Meghan McCain produced a 2020 interview where the vice president said she wouldn't trust a vaccine because it was created and produced by the Trump administration. "She's expressing skepticism about the vaccine under the Trump administration," McCain said. "A lot of Republicans I know are expressing skepticism about the vaccine under the Biden administration. Which is why this has been so dangerous that this has become so politicized. Both sides are equally responsible for this. But the media really lauded her at the time when she said that. She didn't get nearly enough pushback" (via Just Jared).
McCain's suggestion that Harris singlehandedly politicized the United State's response to COVID-19 seems to disregard media analyses suggesting that Donald Trump worked hard to do the same. As per The New York Times, Trump's Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Michael R. Caputo would often change CDC narratives to align with Trump's political agenda. It didn't help that McCain has also expressed distrust in pandemic expert Dr. Anthony Fauci. As reported by The Wrap, she voiced her opinions on The View in late February, saying, "I don't think that he is an unbiased actor in any of this and he is a government official — I'm one of those people who feel that way about him." That was hardly the first time McCain had gone after Dr. Fauci. She followed up her criticism on Twitter: "We need someone else in charge of coronavirus messaging and leadership."
Twitter users were not onboard with McCain's criticisms
Meghan McCain's comments didn't sit too well with members of the Twitter-verse who let her have it; a few even said they had stopped watching The View because of McCain's commentary, including this Twitter user who posted: "I'll have to go research what she said – I refuse to watch @TheView when she is on – she regularly says things that are not accurate or are out right lies – and too often ignorant & racist as well."
A second pointed out that the vice president was quoted out of context, tweeting, "The clip she had played was edited and she didn't play the clip from the debate where K.H. says she'll be "first in line" if the vaccine were approved by medical experts. To adapt something my grandma used to say: @MeghanMcCain "...will lie when the truth is handy."
A third Twitter user went after McCain's husband, posting: "I honestly believe, besides being quite immature, she parrots the views of her very conservative husband, Ben Domenech who is The Federalist publisher and recently signed on to Fox News as a commentator. To me, Meghan is the epitome of 'think before you speak'." In point of fact, like McCain, Domenech's publication has accused Harris of "turn[ing] the vaccine into a political football" (via The Federalist).
The Biden Administration, meanwhile, hopes that all states will offer vaccines to eligible adults by May 1, 2021 (via USA Today). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services hopes to celebrate July 4th as "our independence from this virus."