Meagan Mccain We Dont Have to Make America Great Again

Meghan McCain is one lady who is not for turning. As millions of Republicans devotedly remain onboard the Trump Railroad train, the conservative firebrand counts herself among the GOP members never to accept been a rider.

"I didn't vote for him either time," McCain told Newsweek of one-time President Donald Trump as she discussed her volume Bad Republican, named for a moniker bestowed upon her several years ago for eschewing the wave of populism that has engulfed the party.

For McCain, her refusal to get "full MAGA, cherry meat, alt right conservative" or renounce the Republican party in light of the aforementioned grouping'south domination has meant that she is among the bottom-heard voices on conservative airwaves.

"I don't want to say information technology'due south completely in the minority, but it's certainly not as loud," she explained of her stance. "There's this feeling where if you're not a total populist and believe in the MAGA motility that yous're not welcome."

Though it is a stance she is defiantly proud to take, McCain plant herself walking something of a political tightrope during her time on The View, where she served equally the console's bourgeois vox for iv years until the summertime of 2021.

Meghan McCain has told Newsweek that she became tired of being painted as a "villain" when she served equally the sole conservative voice on ABC's "The View." Emily Shur/Audible

Defending the Indefensible

The timing of her engagement meant that McCain, 37, was often left having to defend Trump—a factor that has made it hard for her to consider going dorsum in front of the camera in the near future.

"I don't want to have to defend things that are indefensible," she said. "The sins of the Republican Political party and the sins of President Trump are not the sins of Meghan. I'm still conservative. You know, obviously, that'south never going to alter.

"What happens in the futurity going forward is anyone's guess. Only only because manifestly if President Trump is the nominee [in 2024] I will non be voting for him or supporting him. And you know, I think that to go on Tv set, people desire me to defend everything GOP... I just got really worn out about it."

"I got really worn out from existence a villain," McCain went on. "I don't want to practise that anymore. I know who I am. I know what I believe. And I stand by everything that I believe. It's more than the screaming at each other, crossfire, we hate each other, nosotros take to yell. Information technology's great for TV. And it'due south corking for ratings. Information technology'due south not great for me as a person."

The View in the Rear-View Mirror

Going against the grain has proved to be familiar territory for McCain, who added a chapter in Bad Republican about her tumultuous time on The View (she made the decision to quit the ABC show following an on-air spat with co-host Joy Behar).

"I think there's this feeling about The View that it'southward like the Mafia, that when yous leave, yous need to exercise it quietly, and you need to do it on their terms," she told Newsweek. "And I left on my own. I had two years left on my contract.

"And I obviously wasn't placidity, because I concluded up calculation a chapter explaining why I left The View because everyone was so curious. And I know as a consumer, when I read other books by people who I've watched on television, I always desire to know a fiddling flake virtually the context of their conclusion."

"I have been in this manufacture a really long time," she continued, "and I knew I'm never going to appear on The View again. I'chiliad completely, 100 percentage comfortable with that. I wouldn't be comfy appearing on that testify, and I don't think they would be comfortable having me. And I'thousand so fine with that it's ridiculous."

"The View" cast — "The View" co-hosts (Fifty-R) Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar, and Sunny Hostin are pictured on August 6, 2021. Meghan McCain was on the show for four years until the summer of 2021. Robert Ascroft/ABC

McCain hopes that telling her story about her time on the evidence—which saw her going toe-to-toe with her co-hosts on an exhaustingly frequent ground—will forestall other women in media, "especially in telly, no thing who they are, [from being] treated the same way I was."

"I'grand a grown woman, I have a wonderful life," she added. "I'm not request for a pity political party. Information technology's more that I only want the treatment of women in media, particularly conservative women, to change. And I hope that volition happen to whomever comes afterwards me."

Now a columnist for the Daily Mail, McCain has left The View in her rear-view mirror, excluding the show from her goggle box consumption, salvage for headline-making moments that have permeated her Twitter feed in contempo months.

"Not trying to audio snobby, because I watch the Real Housewives and Bravo and things like that, also. But when it comes to my daily news, I consume pretty straight political news and commentary," she said. "The View just doesn't come up into it."

With her daily schedule no longer including furious on-air contend, McCain recently finalized a start wait pic and television producing deal with Teton Ridge Entertainment, a prospect she is "so excited" about working on.

She is also is enjoying spending fourth dimension with Freedom Sage, the xix-calendar month-one-time daughter she shares with her husband, The Federalist co-founder and publisher Ben Domenech.

Sarah Palin for Congress

However, i chemical element of McCain'due south by may become a trivial more difficult to ignore. Sarah Palin, who ran for vice president on the late Senator John McCain's ticket in 2008, recently appear that she is running for a congressional seat in Alaska.

Despite Palin having been her father's running mate, McCain told Newsweek in no uncertain terms that she will not exist supporting the former governor of Alaska.

"I never count her out," McCain shared. "I never remember similar, 'Oh, y'all know, she can't get elected,' considering she still does take a fan base of operations. And she'due south obviously endorsed by President Trump. But, you know, am I going to exist candidature with her and supporting her? No.

"Again, these are just similar, not my kind of politicians, non my kind of candidates. I'm just not—especially right now at this place in my life—I'm not like a 'beverage liberal tears, own the libs' person. I don't have that capacity to feel intensity about my behavior and intensity about people that I think are doing the incorrect thing.

"I would like a sort of higher level of discussion or debate. And anyone who's going to be similar full-throated MAGA is never going to exist the candidate for me, or someone I that I look to. And she is."

The Trump Gene

Palin's run served as something of an opportunity for Trump to take a swipe at his late antagonist Senator McCain, stating in his endorsement that she "lifted the McCain presidential campaign out of the dumps despite the fact that she had to endure some very evil, stupid, and jealous people within the campaign itself."

In plough, Meghan McCain took aim at the real estate mogul'south entire family unit as she told Newsweek that Trump'south legacy volition never hold a candle to that of her father, who passed away in 2018 after battling a brain tumor.

"Nothing surprises me with Trump," she said. "You know, our family and his family have a blood feud. I will never support him. Anyone that with the concluding name Trump, I don't want to have annihilation to exercise with them nether any circumstances."

Donald Trump and John McCain — Meghan McCain shared her belief that former President Donald Trump (L) is "obsessed" with her father, the late Senator John McCain (R), who passed away in 2018 after battling a brain tumor. Brandon Bell/Getty Images;/Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images

She also shared her belief that Trump is "obsessed" with her father, a man she said the old president "thinks and talks" about on a regular basis.

"I wasn't surprised he took a shot at my dad, just considering I have been told through different channels of people that know President Trump socially that he'due south absolutely obsessed with my dad, like obsessed, like, thinks and talks nigh him frequently," she said in tones that fluctuated betwixt pride for her father and exasperation at Trump.

"My dad is, in my humble opinion, ane of the greatest Americans that ever lived, menses," she continued. "I remember it simply goes back to [Trump] knows that my dad is beloved and celebrated and will be intensely remembered and is, you know, cached at the Naval Academy, where midshipmen [besides pay their respects].

"I know, because I visit his grave, not infrequently, midshipmen come by and visit it and pay respects to him. Often his grave always has then many things all over it, like flowers and coins and cacti and flags, and only tokens of things where people are paying their respects.

"And I just don't believe that his legacy is going to exist the same. His legacy will be one of partitioning and conflict and January half dozen. And, you know, I think that's why he'due south and then obsessed with him. And you know, I no longer care really. It doesn't mean I enjoy information technology.

"Merely my family, and I experience like I can speak for all of my six siblings and my mother, in the sense similar, we do not requite a f*** what a Trump thinks of my family unit. I never will."

Bad Republican, which is currently available in sound format on Audible, will be available at all bookstores in hardcopy from Apr 26.