Of Course, Meghan McCain Is Criticizing Democrats over Jon Stewart's 9/11 Hearing, of Course

By Mike Redmond | Celebrity | June 12, 2019 |

By Mike Redmond | Celebrity | June 12, 2019 |

After a busy morning of making herself look like a Pepto Bismol bottle sending back riblets, Meghan McCain continued that series of incredible choices by randomly attacking Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell for not attending the Jon Stewart hearing on funding for 9/11 first responders.

Via The Daily Beast:

“Because he’s off running for president and I understand that,” The View’s Meghan McCain said on Wednesday’s show. “But I do think that when you’re talking about 9/11 first responders more people should be showing up to those hearings.”

Pushing back, Joy Behar said it’s “more about funding than attending,” to which McCain responded, “I think listening is important.”

So, first off, Eric Swalwell — who I’ve literally never heard of until today — is running for president? Jesus Christ, how many Democratic candidates are there?! Second, obviously, Joy Behar is right, but let’s go ahead and make sure it’s very clear what’s happening here besides the usual horsesh*t where Meghan provides cover for the Republican party, which we’ll get to in a second.

(Emphasis mine.)

“I trust him, in a way that I don’t any other late-night host,” she said, alluding to her complicated feelings about Seth Meyers. “And I commend him for his commitment to this, and for his emotion, because it’s valid. And when he’s saying something like this, we as Americans should listen.”

There it is. Also, it probably should be noted that Jon Stewart has a long history of showing the proper reverence to the late Senator John McCain who is Meghan’s cousin, I want to say? I’m sure the relation isn’t important. Anyway, “both sides”-erism is going to be the theme today, and I do it with a heavy heart because Stewart was probably my biggest hero for a very long time. Which I knew would eventually end sadly because the bulk of my writing career involves spending a decade running a site whose main cornerstone was “Holy sh*t, stop worshipping celebrities for the love of god.”

So, right off the bat, let’s address how Meghan barked up the exact wrong tree looking for a manager: Eric Swalwell supports the funding bill. He’s not part of the problem. And while there was a big to-do about the low congressional attendance for Stewart’s hearing, it was a subcommittee meeting, and the first responders know what’s important.

Via Time:

After the hearing, Gerard Fitzgerald, the President of the Uniformed Firefighter Association of Greater New York and a 9/11 first responder, told TIME that more than 300 legislators have already said that they will support the bill.

Fitzgerald says that it wasn’t particularly important to him for the legislators to show respect by sitting in at the hearing.

“If they vote the right way, I’ll take that respect,” Fitzgerald says.

It’s almost as if actions speak louder than words, and guess whose actions have placed the first responders’ fate in peril. You’ll never believe it. From the always excellent J. S. in the comments:

I guess to add some context, this is not the first bill that was passed in the aftermath of 9/11 for the victims of the attack and for the responders of the immediate aftermath. That first fund expired in 2003. This is the newer fund from 2010. The main problem of the 2010 fund is that it was passed during the lame duck session of Congress and was signed into law the day before the new Republican House was seated. Because of the intense opposition to the law from Republicans and the fact that there were only 59 Democratic Senators after Ted Kennedy died and Scott Brown was elected, the only way to get this passed was to add at 5-year expiration date. In 2015, Obama was able to cobble together enough votes to extend the fund until 2020. However, due to some miscalculations, the fund was exhausted Feb of this year. Whether or not the funds had been exhausted, this bill would have also have needed to be renewed in the upcoming year. This current bill is to forgo that 5-year expiration date and to make the fund permanent until 2090.

And here’s Charlie Pierce with the nutshell:

Before we carry Jon Stewart around the Intertoobz on our shoulders, we should remind him that “Congress” isn’t holding up the renewal of the 9/11 bill. Republicans are.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) June 11, 2019

In Stewart’s defense, a lot of the responses to Pierce’s tweet argue that the former Daily Show host obviously knows who’s responsible for stabbing first responders in the back, but if Stewart comes out swinging directly at Republicans, his activism will be dismissed as partisan and fall on deaf ears. And I absolutely understand that calculation. However, Stewart also has a noted penchant for “both sides”-erism and for infamously going to bat for Trump supporters by defending them as normal people who aren’t all racists. Frustratingly, a lot of that defense comes from the fact that some of the first responders that Stewart has been working with are Trump supporters, which is awkward to say the least. On the one hand, yes, these people are heroes who deserve to be cared for in honor of their bravery and sacrifice. On the other hand…

'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

— Adrian Bott (@Cavalorn) October 16, 2015

There’s also the message being sent when footage of Stewart generically berating Congress goes viral. A “pox on both houses” is exactly the flavor of horsesh*t that landed the country directly in the rapey tangerine nightmare that we’re currently drowning in. We’re watching in real time what happens when you throw your hands up and go, “Both parties are the same” when one of them is the equivalent of letting termites into the house. There’s a reason why “drain the swamp” is the mantra of the right: It’s a stupid-ass catchphrase.

On that note, I really liked what Scott Portman said yesterday in the comments even though it doesn’t exactly shine a flattering light on Stewart:

The issue here is not Congress, but Mitch McConnell. It’s a little misleading for Jon Stewart to come before the House and berate them for something they support — when McConnell refuses to bring up an extension vote in the Senate. This is a trap people on the left fall into over and over … The Republicans benefit by dysfunctional government or no government at all. So the House passes all sorts of popular desperately needed legislation; McConnell kills it in the Senate and then everyone, seemingly including Jon Stewart, blames “Congress” and yells “throw the bums out”. Let’s focus our efforts and anger on where the problem really lies: The GOP stranglehold on the Senate and the unfair system that allows 700,000 assholes in Wyoming 40 times as much influence in the Senate as the 30,000,000 plus people in California. Flip the Senate and we will start making progress. In the meantime yelling at the House, as Stewart did today, is just sound and fury, signifying nothing.

So to the surprise of no one with a functioning brain, the problem here is Mitch McConnell. And yet Meghan McCain felt the need to single out… *adjusts glasses, squints*… a Democratic congressman who’s literally voting for the exact first responder bill that John Stewart is championing. Weird. It’s almost like she doesn’t know a goddamn thing about how anything works, but that can’t be right.

She’s related to John McCain, somehow.