Meghan McCain, in Debate About Duckworth’s Threat, Asks View Hosts If They Should Quit to Make Room for Asian American Host
While debating Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s (D-IL) ultimatum to the Biden administration, Meghan McCain asked her colleagues if one of The View co-hosts should leave the show to allow room for Asian representation.
Duckworth called out the White House over a lack of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) representation in President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, vowing to vote against his nominees until that he appoints an Asian American.
The ultimatum reportedly stemmed from a conversation she had with White House officials, who pointed to Vice President Kamala Harris when Duckworth questioned the lack of Asian American representation in the U.S. government.
“That is not something you would say to the Black caucus, ‘Well, you have Kamala, we’re not going to put any more African Americans in the Cabinet because you have Kamala.’ Why would you say it to AAPI?” Duckworth told reporters on Tuesday.
The View’s Whoopi Goldberg opened Wednesday episode by addressing the ultimatum, noting that the White House’s alleged response was something the Black community often faced when they began to push for representation.
Both Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines lauded Duckworth’s decision at the start of The View’s “Hot Topics,” yet McCain questioned if identity politics were getting in the way of Democrat’s agenda.
“There’s nothing Mitch McConnell loves more than this. Because it means that there will be no more votes coming from Democrats and less people being put in Cabinet positions,” McCain said, before praising the concept of the American dream.
McCain said she believes that the most qualified people should be nominated to handle issues like national security and infrastructure.
“I believe that what makes American exceptional is the fact that we’re a meritocracy, that you can be anything,” she said. “You can come from anywhere and go and have success in any capacity. and I think the question Democrats have to reconcile right now is whether or not race and gender are more important than qualification.”
McCain went on to claim that elevating minorities in the United States, as oppose to exclusively focusing on merit and character — is “not with Martin Luther King Jr. preached”
Despite McCain’s claim, King Jr. often warned against the U.S. version of Capitalism, highlighting that not everyone has equal access to the American dream:
“Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources,” he said. “With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That’s the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.”
McCain later noted The View’s own lack of AAPI representation, questioning which host would have to quit to make room for an Asian American.
“I think this is a very, very slippery slope. I was very surprised to hear someone like Tammy Duckworth saying in like this. She got a lot of blowback from a lot of people, not just on the right, and I think this is just the natural progression of identity politics,” she said. “And I will say, just to put a cap on this, The View is 25 years old next year. We’ve only had one Asian American co-host the show. So does that mean that one of us should be leaving at some point because there’s not enough representation?”
“Is identity politics more important than the qualifications for the job?” she continued. “I think that’s a question going forward that the progressive left is going to have to reconcile.”
Watch above, via ABC.
