“So, did you ever wonder why your kid can’t get into an Ivy League school even though they have straight As and great SAT scores?” Joy Behar asked at the top of Wednesday’s The View.
For the next several minutes, the co-hosts had a reasonable conversation about the scandal currently rocking the college admissions world. Then Meghan McCain chimed in.
McCain zeroed in on some comments made by fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, or “Aunt Becky’s husband,” as she called him. After mentioning that there is a lawsuit against Harvard University for letting in “too many Asian students”—she later corrected herself on that—McCain said: “For me, specifically, not everything is about my family, I know, I read my tweets, I know what you’re saying, but Aunt Becky’s husband talked crap about ASU and Arizona State University is where the McCain Institute for International Leadership is partnered.”
She went to make the story about herself, defending the school that is mostly unrelated to the scandal as Behar urged her to wrap it up. “Aunt Becky’s husband, whoever the hell you are, I had no idea who you were until yesterday, sorry, your kid probably wouldn’t have been good enough to get into ASU.”
Then, when Behar brought up the “racist” history of “legacy” admissions policies at colleges and universities, McCain somehow got offended.
“My family goes back generations at the Naval Academy,” McCain said, “and that’s service to your country so I would push back on that part of it because my grandfather, great-grandfather, my brothers all served their country.” She added, “I don’t think there’s anything to be ashamed of with my family’s legacy at the Naval Academy, my father’s buried there.”
“I’m not talking about your family!” Behar shot back. “I’m talking about the policy of where legacy admissions came from. It was to keep non-white people, and Jews probably, out of the colleges.”
McCain just sat there shaking her head as they wrapped up the segment and went to commercial.