John Oliver Calls Out Meghan McCain for Previous Anti-Asian Comments Concerning Coronavirus
Update: McCain, who was not on today’s episode of The View, posted this apology to Twitter:
I condemn the reprehensible violence and vitriol that has been targeted towards the Asian-American community. There is no doubt Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric fueled many of these attacks and I apologize for any past comments that aided that agenda.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) March 22, 2021
Following the brutal hate crime in Atlanta in which six Asian people were murdered by a white supremacist, the general tone has been to denounce the murderer and the hate. However, that denouncement does not erase the complicit behaviors many exhibited when previously discussing the coronavirus pandemic, something Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver pointed out about The View‘s Meghan McCain.
Oliver showed a clip of McCain normalizing Donald Trump’s use of the term “China Virus.”
Back in 2020, during a conversation about Trump’s use of racist language concerning the virus, The View’s panel, which included guest host Dan Abrams, discussed the problems with Trump calling it the “Chinese Virus.” True to herself, Meghan decided to sigh and ignore the larger issue.
“I think if the left wants to focus on P.C. labeling this virus, it is a great way to get Trump reelected,” McCain said in the resurfaced video. “I don’t have a problem with people calling it whatever they want. It’s a deadly virus that did originate in Wuhan.” She goes on to add that she “doesn’t have a problem with it” and if China had acted right away, “maybe it wouldn’t have gotten to the place that it is.”
“Oh good, Meghan McCain doesn’t have a problem with it!” Oliver said on his show. “Listen not to the scores of Asian Americans telling everyone that the term is dangerous and offensive. Instead, gather around and take the word of a wealthy white woman who’s dressed like she’s about to lay off 47 people over Zoom.”
“Now, I will say, Meghan McCain posted this week, ‘Stop Asian Hate,’ with three broken hearts emoji, which is a fine sentiment to throw up on Twitter after the fact,” he added. “But there has to be an understanding that saying, ‘I don’t have a problem with calling it the China virus’ is very much giving space for hate to grow.”
Exactly.
She did clarify, after co-host Sunny pointed out that Chinese-Americans are the ones at risk of being targeted because of this rhetoric, that she doesn’t agree with racial harassment. However, she said she doesn’t want to let “China off the hook.”
What is more telling to me is that when co-host Whoopi Goldberg brought up the comparison to Trump’s language surrounding Mexicans (near the very end of the video clip in the below tweet), McCain excused it as effective messaging despite the ramifications of spreading hate.
TRUMP CALLS COVID-19 “CHINESE VIRUS”: After sparking criticism for using the term, the president defended himself saying he “had to call it where it came from” — the co-hosts react. https://t.co/5ED5cehetN pic.twitter.com/az5HXhHmyH
— The View (@TheView) March 18, 2020
As someone who watches The View damn near every day, I can say that two of the hardest things about it is the lack of a true progressive voice and the fact that McCain has often been allowed to just say some bizarre things with no pushback. Oliver points out that after the attacks, McCain tweeted “Stop Asian Hate,” but it’s the lack of true intersectional understanding that comes when she says “she has no problem” with the “Chinese Virus” terms.
I do understand that Meghan, who is Team America all day, wants to call out China, and there is good reason to call out how they suppressed their own scientists. But that is addressing the Chinese government and does not take into account the history of Asian-Americans and Asian immigrants. Jokes about Asians, from their food and dress to the way media will clump all Asians together in order to promote a model minority myth and ignore ethnicity and class, is part of the problem.
In recent days, McCain has been saying the right things, but it shouldn’t always take the slaughter of innocent people to make people think about how their rhetoric is dangerous.
McCain’s comments have improved and I can only hope that, as she has stated recently, the George Floyd protests did flip a switch in her maybe. But the most important thing we can do now is listen to Asian voices about these issues, to educate ourselves about the Anti-Asian discrimination that has existed in this country and others. Doing that work so that we don’t have to wait for the next extreme incident to be educated is the best way to be an ally.
(via EW, image: Screenshot/HBO)
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