ABC’s “The View” co-host Meghan McCain on Wednesday questioned whether one of the show’s co-hosts should leave to make room for a person with Asian descent, reports Mediate.
The topic came up after Whoopi Goldberg addressed Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s ultimatum to the White House — that she would vote no on all non-diversity nominees until Asian Americans are named to more high-level positions in the Biden administration.
“We don’t have anybody either (at a senior level) in the West Wing or in a cabinet-level position, and I don’t think that’s a good message to send to a significant portion of our nation’s population — a population that’s really hurting right now after a year of being under attack,” she told reporters Tuesday.
McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, said Duckworth’s demand could backfire.
“Meghan, when you see somebody say, hey, listen, I need us to be represented, do you think she should have done it differently?” Goldberg asked.
“There’s nothing Mitch McConnell loves more than this,” McCain started. “There will be more no votes from Democrats unless people are being put in cabinet positions.”
She said Cabinet positions should be filled based on qualifications.
“I believe that’s what makes American exceptional is the fact that we’re a meritocracy, that you can be anything,” she said. “You can come from anywhere and go and have success in any capacity. The question Democrats have to reconcile with right now is whether or not race and gender are more important than qualification,” McCain said.
“If you have someone who is more qualified who happens to be a white straight person who is more on paper, has more experience in whatever field they’re being nominated for than a minority with less experience, are we now in a place where this matters?”
President Joe Biden during his campaign vowed to have a diverse staff.
Kamala Harris, his vice president, is the first Black and Indian American woman to be in her role. Katherine Tai, who is Taiwanese American, is in the Cabinet as Biden’s top trade envoy. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the son of Indian parents, was confirmed Tuesday as surgeon general, a sub-Cabinet position.
McCain said she was “surprised” to hear of Duckworth’s ultimatum and said there was a lot of really interesting politics going on in the U.S., including lawsuits against Ivy Leagues for not allowing Asian Americans in at the same rate as Black students and stimulus money for farmers in the latest COVID-19 relief package, but not for women farmers.
“So we’re going to a place where even if people need money, even if people are qualified to get into Ivy Leagues, race and gender is more important than your skill qualifications, the content of your character, it is not what Martin Luther King Jr. preached. I think this is a very, very slippery slope,” McCain said.
“I was surprised to hear someone like Tammy Duckworth say something like this. She got a lot of blowback from a lot of people, not just on the right.”
“Just to put a cap on this, ‘The View’ is 25 years old next year. We’ve only had one Asian American host co-host this show. Does that mean that one of us should be leaving at some point because there’s not enough representation?” McCain said, calling it the “natural progression of identity politics.”
Duckworth reversed her stance after the White House said it would add an Asian American Pacific Islander liaison to its staff.
Source: Newmax
