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Meghan McCain may be a staunch conservative, but even she seems to have a problem President Trump’s divisive jabs against Rep. Ilhan Omar. However the real reason she’s upset at Trump is because his racist rhetoric is stopping her from being able to attack Omar (more subtly) herself.
According to Jezebel, this week, during a rally in North Carolina, a crowd of Trump supporters listened to him continue to rail against the freshman congresswoman from Minnesota to jeers of “send her back.”
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On Thursday, while discussing the disturbing display on ABC’S The View, McCain condemned the president for feeding his supporters such vitriol against Omar and the other women of color in what has come to be known as “The Squad.” But then she conceded that her annoyance was based on the fact that comments like his, were essentially, “taking away [her] agency to criticize [Omar’s] policy.”
“Everyone at this table, and I think, people that watch this show or have ever seen the dumpster fire of my interview with Seth Meyers know I have been one of Ilhan Omar’s most vocal critics regarding Israel, regarding some of her comments I and others interpreted as anti-Semitic,” McCain said. “But the problem right now is, you’re taking away my agency to criticize her policy.”
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“You’re making this about race, xenophobia, racism,” she added. “I think any time you’re hitting in a territory where you’re telling any American citizen of a different color than you, to send them back, I too didn’t think this is something I would see in my country, especially going into 2020.”
Despite the validity of some of her points, viewers criticized McCain for seemingly making herself a victim in this whole ordeal, while pointing out that she only seems to defend marginalized people when it doesn’t require her to take a look at her own behavior.
McCain has consistently been one of Omar’s most outspoken critics, often accusing the Somali-American of using “anti-Semitic language” for daring to criticize Israel and on at least one occasion holding her partially responsible for the April synagogue shooting in California.