-Thank you for being here. -Thank you so much
for having me. -And thank you for doing
another talk show after you already did a talk show
this morning. -Oh sure.
-I appreciate you doing double duty.
-Oh, no problem. I feel like a cool kid
anytime I get to do anything that's after 12:00
in the afternoon. -Yeah, well that's --
Well, thank you for cool-kidding with us.
And you were also a cool kid in that you were an intern
at "SNL" when you were like 19 years old?
-19, 20, yeah. -Okay, and I was there.
I was in the cast then. Do you have any memories of me?
And I'm hoping... [ Laughter ]
-I do. -Okay.
-Yeah, you were a total gentleman.
-Oh, good, good. -Very respectful of interns.
-Thank you. There you go. [ Cheers and applause ]
-I remember, one time, I had to, like, clean up a table,
and there were, like, magazines all over it,
and they, like, made me organize it.
And you helped me, so there you go.
-There you go. That's incredibly...
-Nice guy, Seth. -[ Laughing ] Yeah.
-It's such a weird time in my life,
and it's a thing that people always ask about.
People always want to know what the experience was like.
And I -- You know, even coming in this building,
it's just very nostalgic because there's a page letting me in.
-Yeah, no, and a lot has stayed very much the same,
not just the physical space. But there are things,
like the page outfit, I don't think has changed in 50 years.
-They wear the same jacket. -Yeah.
I'm always happy because it's such a stressful place
that when I meet people that used to be interns,
I'm just so afraid that they -- Well, somebody came up
and gave me a piece of bad news, and I, like, took --
like, I looked at them and was like, "What?"
So I'm very happy that I was helping
with magazine assortments instead.
-Everyone was wonderful. -Good.
-I don't know if I just, like -- I also, like, you know,
have worked at a lot of other places
that, like, crazy things happen, and nothing ever happens to me.
And I always wonder if, like, people were so scared of my dad
or I just come off like a tough chick.
I don't know, but I had a wonderful internship.
[ Laughter ] -That's right.
I probably took it out on one of the interns
that wasn't John McCain's dad, yeah.
[ Laughter ] Or John McCain's daughter.
Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Fixed a lot of problems, growing up.
-So, I want to ask -- you also had something --
both your parents have been impersonated on "SNL,"
and then it happened for you -- Aidy Bryant did you.
-Yeah. -And what was it like?
I'm guessing maybe you weren't watching live.
When did you hear that Aidy had done you on the show?
-I was on vacation with my husband,
and I woke up in the morning, and I had a ton of --
it was like, ding, ding, ding, ding when I turned on my phone.
And it was like, "You're on 'SNL,' you're on 'SNL.'"
And I was like, and then I brought it up on the computer.
And Aidy and I went to high school together.
-Which is crazy. -Xavier College Preparatory
in Phoenix. So there you go. Thank you.
So, it's weird to be, like, have this girl
I went to high school with impersonate me,
which is amazing. And she's so talented
and incredible. And I watched it,
and I thought it was hilarious.
And my husband thought it was hilarious,
except they paint me out to be an anti-vaxxer,
and he thought that was the most offensive part.
He was like, "You're not an anti-vaxxer."
-So, let's use this time right now
to just say to everyone that Meghan and I agree
on vaccinating your kids. -Vaccinate your children.
-There you go. -Thank you.
-Common ground. -Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Thanks, guys. [ Chuckles ]
-You've obviously been very open and vocal
about the fact that it is distressing to you,
the fact that not only
did Donald Trump attack your father in life,
he is continuing to attack him after he passed away.
Are you -- What do you think? If your dad was still around,
like, do you think he would be delighted by the fact
that Donald Trump cannot shake him from his psyche?
-I mean, when he was alive, he was always like --
I mean, this is a late night show, right?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -So he'd be like,
"I don't give a [Bleep]." [ Laughter ]
I mean, you know, he just doesn't care
about people attacking him. He had been through so much.
It was very hard to rattle him in any way.
And it's just strange that this sort of feud
didn't end when he passed.
-Yeah, historically, it tends to.
-It should. [ Laughter ]
But I think it says so much about where
the President's head's at. And the last time he had
attacked my father publicly on Twitter,
it was the weekend, and I just remember
when, you know, my life -- when I spend my weekends,
it was with my family in Arizona,
hiking and cooking and camping.
And I wish he would do that with his family on the weekends,
instead of obsessing over my family.
-Yeah. -And it's very strange, so...
[ Cheers and applause ] -I think --
-But it makes me, like, sad for them
that you're not -- Like, life is really short.
And I feel it a lot right now, and I think it's because
my father died a little over eight months ago,
and I just feel every moment. And I think you...
And this is a message to everybody,
not just the President. But, like, spend the time off
you have with those you love,
because you don't know if you're going to get a phone call
saying the person you love the most in the world
has glioblastoma and has a year to live.
And I know what that looks like,
and I just wish the President and his family
would, like, really live in the moment.
And you're President, and I'm sure
there's a lot of interesting things to do in the White House,
and spend time with your family. -Yeah, I will say,
if the other alternative is camping,
I think he's still going to tweet about your dad.
[ Laughter ] -Probably.
-I don't see him going out on -- -Probably.
-You know, obviously, they had a history
where the President was very open
about how he felt about your father.
Your father, in turn, was very open with how he felt.
They were not fans of each other.
I imagine it must be harder for your family
with someone like Senator Lindsey Graham,
who was your father's incredibly close friend
and now has sort of tied his fortunes to the President.
Is that a harder thing for your family to watch happen?
-Well, first, I think that everyone in the Trump years
sort of has to reconcile with their conscience
and how -- what role they played in it on all sides,
because I think that he evokes the worst in all of us.
That's my just take on who he is as President.
I think he has ruffled up a lot of negative things
in a lot of ways on both sides.
I think, with -- you know, Lindsey,
I grew up with Lindsey Graham. I can call him Lindsey.
And I considered him my father's best friend
and uncle for a really long time.
And you know, he -- It's hard for me,
and it disappoints me, but I also understand politics.
And I will always love him and respect him.
But, politically, I don't understand it,
because I think the idea probably is
that politically you sort of have to,
you know, make amends with Trump in one way or another,
to be politically relevant and to gain re-election.
But my father was his biggest enemy,
or, I guess, one of his political largest enemies,
and he won his re-election handily in Arizona.
And Arizona, up until that point,
was a red state. Now it's switched to purple.
But it is possible. I just think it --
You have to work harder. -Yeah.
-And I don't know if politicians want to do that,
but I'm always going to love Lindsey.
I'm always going to have a special place in my heart.
But, you know, it -- Of course, it disappoints me.
-Yeah.
-I mean, I think I would be inhuman if it didn't.
-If you said, " That's really cool, you be you."
[ Laughter ] -Well, it's just --
It's strange, too, because people know their relationship.
I mean, I think probably most people here know that,
and people ask me a lot -- quite a lot.
-I don't think Senator Graham made any secret of it,
and I think that's why he has to answer these questions now is,
you know, when you have a friendship
and you talk a lot about how much somebody means to you.
It's very strange for people to watch you
sort of reverse course on that.
I want to ask about Ilhan Omar, Congresswoman from Minnesota.
You know, she was -- You were very vocal
about some of her tweets. People were upset,
thought it was anti-Semitic language.
She has since unequivocally apologized for them.
And then, after that,
there was this tragic synagogue shooting in California.
And you once again, sort of, on a Sunday show --
a Sunday news show -- brought up her tweets again
in the context of that shooting. -On George Stephanopoulos.
-On George Stephanopoulos. yeah.
And I just wonder, cause I do think it's fairly dangerous,
and you brought it up after Congresswoman Omar
had also had some death threats against her.
Do you think -- you know, she's obviously now stated
she needs to be more careful with her language.
Don't you think other people who talk about her
need to be a little bit more thoughtful, as well?
Or do you stand by those comments of tying her to this --
her rhetoric to the synagogue shooting?
-I don't think I tied her to it in particular.
I think that I'm calling out what I see
as anti-Semitic language.
And when you're talking about how hypnotic --
-But even after, you called it out
after she'd apologized for it.
I do want to establish the timeline.
-I don't -- I think that Democrats are hedging on this,
and I think it's very dangerous. And I think Chuck Schumer and I
are in alignment about Israel's stance in geopolitical politics.
I think it's of the utmost importance.
And I think she is bringing her party to the extreme --
extremism on this, and I think
we have to look to Europe and what's happening over there.
and that they're -- You know, in the British politics,
anti-Semitism is very common.
And I see it happening over there,
and I worry about it happening over here.
I stand by every single thing I've said.
And if that makes me unpopular in this room
or in front of you, so be it. -Well, I don't...
[ Cheers and applause ]
See, that's a weird thing that you would take the position
of trying to be unpopular.
Here I am, trying to, you know, find the common ground on this
because I do think one of the -- I think we can both agree --
-Were you bothered by her language about 9/11?
-I thought it was taken out of context.
And I think, if you watch that whole speech --
-Would you give President Trump the same leverage
if he had said the same thing?
-Well, I would say that Donald Trump
is certainly in no position to criticize her language on 9/11,
based on the things that he's said about 9/11, right?
-But would you give -- I just think
you have to give people the same credence,
and I think she's getting a lot of passes.
-Let me make the clarification between Donald Trump
and Ilhan Omar, is one of them has apologized
and said they're going to try to do better,
and they're going to be educated by people who know about this.
That's what she said. And I think she...
You know, it's an interesting thing,
when we have two Muslim women for the first time,
they do have a different perspective on things.
And I think, when we talk about the idea
of like, "Let's all try to meet in the middle on things,"
we have to listen to other people's perspective.
-Oh, I agree. I work on "The View"
with Joy Behar every day. -I listen to other perspectives
all the time. -Is there a way for people
to talk about differences in Israeli policy
without getting framed as anti-Semitic language?
-Yeah, I just think you can't talk
about Jews hypnotizing the world,
talking about "all about the Benjamins."
-You do keep bringing up
the two tweets that she's apologized for,
and I think that's a little unfair to her,
especially because we've established --
-Are you her publicist? -What?
-Are you her press person? -No, I'm just someone
who cares about the fact that there's someone out there
who is in a minority, who has had death threats against her,
and I think that we should all use the same language
that you're asking her to be careful about her language.
And I would ask everybody else to be careful about theirs.
-Okay. Alright. [ Cheers and applause ]
I mean, I'm not sure what -- What would you --
What would make you happy, coming out of my mouth
right now? I'm genuinely curious.
-I'm perfectly happy with everything
that's coming out of your mouth,
and I like that we spent this time together.
-Okay, you seem a little -- I mean, I think, you know,
my opinions are very strong, and I think sometimes because --
-That is coming across. I do want you to know that.
-But I'm on a network show. I'm on ABC.
And I think sometimes, when you're
a hardcore conservative woman like I am,
I think sometimes it's daunting.
I'm not on Fox News anymore. I'm on ABC.
I think sometimes my beliefs, even though I do believe
I represent the vast majority of people in red states,
or at least a lot of women in the middle of the country
who are pro-life, pro-NRA, you know, strong foreign policy,
people who believe in limited and small government,
I think that sometimes it tends to be jarring
for people to see someone like me
in mainstream news, not on Fox. -But I think it's good
that you are on mainstream news, You do have a platform.
I mean, I think there's this idea
that maybe you're saying unpopular things,
but certainly ABC thinks it's worth hearing.
So, you know, you have a platform,
I have a platform. I think we're very lucky.
And I think we have to -- -Oh yeah, I'm, like, so lucky.
-Well, we're in agreement on that, as well.
Vaccinate your kids. Meghan McCain, everybody.
Thank you so much for spending time with me.