After an abnormally quiet week, Meghan McCain is getting back to her old self. During a panel discussion on Dr. Fauci’s emails, the conservative The View host resumed her criticisms of the disease specialist and took things to the next level by essentially accusing Fauci of wanting to be a celebrity. More specifically, McCain said that Fauci “clearly wanted to be a Kardashian” as she took issue with his magazine cover stories and being nominated for People’s “Sexiest Man Alive.”
You can see McCain’s rant kick in at the 4:44 mark below:
NO SMOKING GUN WITH FAUCI EMAILS? After thousands of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails were released, some say he misled the public and downplayed origin theories of COVID-19 though he disagrees — @JoyVBehar, @MeghanMcCain, @ananavarro, @sarahaines, and @TheRachLindsay discuss. pic.twitter.com/GxzEgX3Et4
— The View (@TheView) June 4, 2021
However, McCain’s rant took a dangerous turn when she began parroting conspiracy theories about COVID-19’s origin. While citing Fauci’s emails where he entertains the theory that the virus may have been an “accidental lab leak,” McCain started going to bat for Senator Tom Cotton and other Republicans who have floated theories that the virus was a bioweapon. While admitting that she’s not a scientist, McCain repeated right-wing talking points that “the Chinese government is testing viruses for other viruses which is something we don’t do in this country.” Via The Wrap:
“When this originally started people like Tom Cotten were writing op-eds and going on TV just raising questions and if you raise the question that, ‘hey, this might’ve come from the Chinese labs in Wuhan you were treated like you were Alex Jones with a tinfoil hat on your head and now you have Vanity Fair which is not a conservative publication by anybody’s definition writing huge profiles raising these questions and we have to understand where the virus originated from if we’re ever going to be able to god forbid face a threat like this going forward.”
McCain then demanded more transparency from Fauci to restore “the legitimacy of our institutions,” which is an interesting statement to make after spouting conspiracy theories that question that very legitimacy. To be clear, the government is investigating whether COVID-19 was a lab leak, which experts believe is a possibility, but not in the sense that Republicans have been portraying it. In short, there is very little evidence that COVID-19 is some sort of “bioweapon” that accidentally got out, or as the more dangerous theories suggest, was purposefully leaked.
(Via The View on Twitter)