Meghan McCain is taking Katie Couric to task for suggesting that members of “the cult of Trump” need to be “deprogramed” after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. On Monday morning, The View‘s resident conservative railed against Democrats who have labeled the 74 million Americans who voted for Trump as “irredeemable,” even as they campaign on a platform of unity. “If we’re all just deplorable and need to be deprogrammed,” said McCain, “Then, honestly, they can go to hell!”
The View began Monday’s episode with a discussion about Trump’s continued hold on the GOP, but even though the co-hosts agreed in principle ( “There’s a huge, deep divide and fracture” in the Republican Party, said McCain) they differed on the effect the rift will have on Democrats “I had sort of assumed after President Biden won that the feeling of unity and coming together would be something that would be happening — that Democrats would be wanting Republicans to come together with them to go forward,” said McCain.
“Instead, we’re hearing a lot of language from people like Katie Couric that Republicans like me need to be quote, ‘deprogrammed,’” she continued. “That we’re ‘brainwashed.’ That 74 million Americans are basically irredeemable people that we don’t need to communicate towards and we don’t need to, in any way, have anything to do with.”
McCain was referring to comments Couric made on Real Time with Bill Maher on January 15, during a discussion about the Capitol riots. “Some of them are believing the garbage that they are being fed 24/7 on the internet, by their constituents, and they bought into this big lie,” the veteran news anchor said of GOP congressmen who have gone “AWOL” during the Trump era. “The question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump.”
While McCain seems to have taken Couric’s remarks out of context — she was not referring to all Republicans, just those in the “cult of Trump” — her co-hosts declined to call her on it, and she proceeded to continue her screed. “I think it’s horribly dangerous for the country, and I also think it’s horribly dangerous for Democrats. Because if you don’t care about unity, you should care about the politics of this,” she said. “Right now, there is a vacuum to pick up the four people, the four in 10 Republicans who feel very disenfranchised.”
“I don’t need to be deprogrammed!” concluded McCain. “I just have a different perspective on how the government should be run.”
To her credit, Goldberg declined to engage with McCain’s rant. “Okay. Cool,” she said, before directing a question towards Sara Haines. That’s one way to shut things down.
*story by Decider
