Everything started last Friday, when several people pointed out that Meghan McCain’s sad book Bad Republican had flopped. How bad did it flop? The book only sold 244 copies. You read that correctly. Only 244 books were sold. Meghan threw a tantrum about it on Twitter, claiming that the book was only offered as a companion to the audiobook or something (which is not the way publishing works, hon). Then someone noticed that on Cindy McCain’s Instagram, she posted a photo of Meghan at her father’s grave… and Meghan brought a copy of her book, which she then posed at John McCain’s headstone. Holy sh-t, that is in poor taste.
So among all of the maga-lite histrionics from Meghan online, someone decided it was their moment to take her down several additional notches. That someone is Steve Schmidt, who was John McCain’s longtime friend. Schmidt was/is a Republican operative who acted as McCain’s campaign manager in 2008. In the film Game Change, Schmidt was played by Woody Harrelson. Schmidt lost total faith in the GOP during Donald Trump’s rise, although he still believes in “McCain Republicanism.” In any case, Schmidt spilled all the tea. This is all from his Twitter thread:
@MeghanMcCain has been trying to have a conversation with me for almost 14 years. Once again, today, she called me a Pedophile. It is a slander. It is disgusting. It is untrue and it says everything about her. Here she is liking the tweet of a far right liar and piece of filth.
After 14 years of abuse and attacks, today is the day I have decided to respond. I am happy to keep the story going after this thread, it only gets better.
I was the first adult that @MeghanMcCain ever encountered that she heard the word NO from. I told her she was unimportant and that the Presidential election wasn’t about her. I left her on the tarmac when she didn’t make the plane because as I explained to her, the 5000 people who were waiting to see her father speak and took the time to do it deserved to have him show up on time.
That was the way John McCain saw it. He was appalled by @MeghanMcCain conduct on the campaign. Appalled and embarrassed. The tantrums were beyond anything I have ever witnessed from any other human being. They were epic meltdowns that would test the range of Meryl Streep, Kate Winslett, Jodi Foster and Anne Hathaway on their best days. Raging, screaming, crying, at the staff, at the makeup people at Secret Service.
Without any doubt it was the most rotten, entitled, spoiled, cruel, mean and bullying behavior I have ever witnessed. It was my job to confront it and I did. I talked to 24 year old @MeghanMcCain the way an adult should have talked to the Trump kids. I talked to her the way a retired USMC 4 Star General failed to do in the WH with Ivanka, Jared and Jr. They are all the same people. I told her that she was unimportant and that everything around her had nothing to do with her. I told her she was privileged and lucky and should be grateful. She told me and anyone else who would listen in response, “Do you know who the F–k my Dad is” It was the miserable anthem of the total chaos that was the McCain Campaign. It never stopped until one day when I said ENOUGH!
@MeghanMcCain is a bully, entitled, unaccomplished, spoiled and mean. She has rejected her Family’s history of service for a shallow and purposeless celebrity where she trades on a famous name like a fourth generation wannabe clipping coupons while pretending to be an heir.
I was a volunteer for John McCain. He called me when that campaign went belly up. Everyone quit and he called and asked for my help and I never asked him for a dime. I never took a dime. I left my three year old for a year and did everything I could for John McCain. He was the only person I ever worked for who put in a position where I became involved in a public lie. When that campaign ended, I made a vow that that would never happen again and it hasn’t.
[From Steve Schmidt’s Twitter]
MORE. Say more!!! Take her down completely. Anyway, yes, I completely believe this. I believe Meghan is this big of a pill. She’s always been this way. Meghan is terrible. While Schmidt doesn’t say this, I bet Meghan was also pissed off that Sarah Palin and the Palin family got so much attention in 2008 as well.
2/ After 14 years of abuse and attacks, today is the day I have decided to respond. I am happy to keep the story going after this thread, it only gets better. pic.twitter.com/zqRX1qhnDO
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) May 7, 2022
Photos courtesy of Cindy’s Instagram and The View.
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- The Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex arrive for the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London, on what would have been her 60th birthday. Picture date: Thursday July 1, 2021. .,Image: 619024782, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Prince Charles at The Prince’s Trust Awards, The London Palladium, UK Where: Default, Default, Default When: 11 Mar 2020 Credit: WENN/Avalon **WENN/Avalon**
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- Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel at arrivals for 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards – Arrivals 2, The Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA January 7, 2018. Photo By: Dee Cercone/
This was glorious in real time. All the clips being tweeted of MM saying MY FATHER was hilarious.
@cjw it was glorious! were schmidts comment(s) on Rick meant for Rick Wilson. I am a lifelong dem and get the R operatives mixed up or just don’t know.
No it was a different Rick (forgot his last name, he mentioned it a couple times).
Can we just cancel her unless the coverage is from this guy? I truly can’t stand her face and would love to never see it again. But if this guy is telling the stories to us I’m here for it. Cover that lol
No, it’s Rick Davis, an associate of Paul Manafort, who worked on the campaign & was responsible for vetting Sarah Palin. Besides taking down Nutmeg, he has a long thread on McCain’s ties to Russia
It was so amazing real time, and she only has herself to blame too, which made it even better.
No, Rick I believe was Rick Davis/Davies who was a Manafort associate.
that man continued to spill into the morning hours on Sunday. Crazy stuff.
waiting for her response…
P.S. who were the 244 idiots who bought her book????
Herself
Exactly. For family members, her children, siblings, in-laws and his extended family and her one friend that she has. And I am being gracious with one friend.
And Water is wet
Calling Schmidt a pedophile is straight up slander. I hope he sues her into oblivion.
Unfortunately, throwing out pedophilia is just another way to win an argument on a Tuesday when you’re conservative-minded. Deeply malignant behavior- which is ironic, since one of their other favorite ways to win their culture war is to run around diagnosing everyone *else* with things. Amazing that this spoiled brat is the same Meghan McCain who has ranted about how spoiled modern American queer people and women are for calling out homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny.
Joy Behar is having the best day ever!
Imagine the group chat between her, Whoopi, Ana, and Sunny 😂
She is embarrassing, that photo is embarrassing….like the person above stated, who are those 244 morons?
Journalists/critics who had to obtain a copy to report/review it?
Libraries
The Federalist
Not only did they take the photo shared here that was posted on Cindy McCain’s IG but Meghan posed for another picture w/her in front of the tombstone (book still propped on it) that she posted on her IG along with a side angle pick of the tombstone (book still there but partially blocked by the flag).
McCain is buried at the Naval Academy. No doubt they were less than thrilled with this stunt.
She could’ve done so much good in the world. She had a leg up from the beginning and she decided to use it only to pursue money and celebrity. A dishonor to her father’s legacy.
Not really, she’s a continuation of his legacy. He wasn’t a good person. Read the rolling stone article about the real John McCain and you’ll see he did the exact same thing his daughter does.
Thank you for the info. I’ll definitely check it out!
MM is also married to a plagiarist.
Exactly. John McCain was also a screaming entitled bully. But I did laugh that he didn’t hold that plane for Meghan since she was late and fucking with a campaign event timetable.
I’ll have to go look up that RS article, but I always respected that he corrected that old lady at the town hall who called Obama “a arab.” Well, not really corrected, but shut it down. He said that Obama was a good man, which, considering the way the repubs are now, is very impressive. (Of course, grain of salt, I’m sure he was totally embarrassed that such an idiot was given the mic at his town hall).
Still, I don’t think that McCain would be part of this whole “dems are pedophiles” thing that has taken the republican party by storm, but I could be wrong. But, I mean, obviously he wasn’t very good, he’s a republican politician
John McCain called a young Chelsea Clinton a dog.
He did apologize for it, but it proves the apple don’t fall far from the tree.
@ Jan, that’s reprehensible. No one should attack a child except MM, she deserves it and more!!
@ KFG, is this the article? As they have a few.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/john-mccain-make-believe-maverick-202004/
I think it is as the other was written when he passed away.
Schmidt spilled more serious tea on his Substack about John McCain. It was shocking. The link is on his Twitter.
Is that about the Russian angle? I loved his take down of MM but was blown away by his related twitter thread basically saying he was a useful idiot for Russia.
Yes, I can understand that the Meghan McCain story is the bigger one on here since this isn’t a politics blog (technically), but Russia’s involvement with the GOP goes much deeper than I knew. If I knew that McCain’s campaign was shadow run by Russians at the time, I didn’t understand the importance of it.
THIS!!!! The revelation that the Russians had an operative inside the campaign (as a donor/advisor) and that operative and Manfort (irrc) picked Sarah Palin, and were actively steering the campaign in directions Schmidt and others strongly disagreed with (embracing the Tea Party), is the actual tea in Schmidt’s weekend threads/rants (I do not mean to deride them by calling them rants — they were excellent — but rants is what they were). We need to pay much much more attention to Russia and how long it has been sowing discord/political divisiveness/democracy-destroying thinking and policy in this country.
It’s great and all that he’s spilling this now. But where was he 8-10 years ago?
The whole “Russians had an operative working in a Republican candidate’s Presidential campaign who was in lock step with Paul Manafort …” might have been useful info for voters, authorities to know during the 2016 presidential primary, campaign season.
NorthofBoston: exactly. And people will be focusing on the MM takedown aspect of it, rather than the far more consequential Russia aspect.
No one would’ve cared if Steve had spilled the tea about Russia in 2016. Americans knew about Russian involvement in 2020 and still ran to the polls for Trump. At this point, Putin himself could come down and say “I infiltrated the GOP back in 2008 and ____ is my handpicked candidate” and half of this country would vote for the Russian agent.
Wow, this really is a thing of beauty. I’m glad he allowed 14 years for the bitterness to build to this level because it’s amazing.
I was home isolating after several exposures to Covid. Steve’s Twitter feed provided some unexpected entertainment
Rick Davis, not Wilson
She’s a horrible person. One of the nastiest thins I’ve ever seen was her repeatedly degrading Joe Biden after he had been a guest on The View and openly comforted her and held her hand on national tv as she expressed fears about her father’s terminal cancer. She’s disgusting. No wonder her own mother doesn’t even seem to like her. And that’s saying something because Cindy McCain’s a piece of work herself.
That behavior was so disgusting. Biden was so kind to her.
More importantly, can y’all cover what Steve spilled about McCain campaign connections to Russia and Ukraine instead? Yes, Meghan is a spoiled brat but that’s really the low hanging fruit. More people need to be aware of the shady gop connections dating back to 2008.
I read that and was beyond disturbed DZ. We’ve known for a long time that Russia had its tentacles in the GOP but seeing how far back it went was scary.
DZ absolutely that was horrifying. The Russians have been infiltrating our political life for so much longer than people want to acknowledge.
Fun fact about Steve, he helped get Roberts and Alito on the Supreme Court.
https://twitter.com/steveschmidtses/status/1314649342901456898?s=21&t=gEnxNB7Th1mez_bdYwXA0Q
I wallowed in the glory of his EPIC takedown of this bitch all weekend. She kicked a giant hornets’ nest, and his Twitter is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥. Whether one agrees with Schmidt’s politics or not, he’s got the righteous high ground on this one and receipts for days. John McCain does NOT come out looking good or fit for the Presidency in this saga, either. I read Game Change, but now I need to watch the movie (at last).
It was glorious. Steve Schmidt is so eloquent when he is livid. I was sleepy all day Sunday because I could not stop reading the Sat night Tweets!
And that’s why I don’t donate to that fake Republican group he fronts. The end game is the same for all theses Republicans, whether they are Never Trumpers or not. All of them are totalitarians/ authoritarians.
I agree. Let them fight amongst themselves. They aren’t making positive change.
John McCain is a reminder that people are flawed. Doing great things- especially saving healthcare – but maybe for non-selfless reasons.
Schmidt is no saint. I am too lazy to look it up, but it seems to me that like many of these never Trumper GOPs, they are over compensating for their own complicity in creating a party that was ripe for a takeover by someone like Trump. It also seems to me that Schmidt gets into hissy fits on a regular basis, and shuts down his social media and media presence until the furor is forgotten – I think he was a founder of what was going to be the great ex-GOP podcast until a fellow participant accused him of inappropriate behaviour.
He is no saint at all. He helped give us Alito. However, I can still thoroughly enjoy watching a takedown of a truly horrible person. And boy he had good reason to be mad. You don’t call a sexual assault survivor (or anyone) a pedo unless you are sure you are right.
It’s not about the messenger. It’s about the message.
I’m not going to nitpick who’s bad when it’s a republican attacking a republican.
I’ve been beyond disgusted to see how Republicans have thrown around pedophile accusations through Q-Anon the past few years. It completely degrades the very real and serious issue of child sexual abuse to make unsubstantiated allegations a part of political propaganda. We should be going after Epstein’s clients, but none of them have been tried or even accused publicly except I guess Andrew. Pedophilia is very real and very horrible and this is like a game of “don’t look at Andrew / don’t look at any of the little black book names of presidents and major lawyers and businessmen etc.,” and misdirecting public outrage toward people who are political enemies but not actually guilty of this crime.
Steve Schmidt publicly apologized to a LP cofounder (a woman) for his angry / harassing behavior and ended up resigning. He is definitely not a saint although he loves to portray himself as a white knight.
@Emma: All of this. These puritanical tantrumy bigots are trying that more and more- they use it against sex positive feminists for calling out slut-shaming and victim-blaming, against openly gay, pan, and bisexual people, against allies for daring to call them out when they get abusive, against transgender people, and even just cis males in drag. The anti-abortion crowd has tried to use it as a reason for why teenage girls shouldn’t have access to birth control and abortion. Stans and haters (who are really the other side of the stan coin, but think they’re above it) use it towards celebrity ‘rivals’. Hell, Elon Musk used it just because someone pissed him off. More and more, there’s going to be pushback against people using that issue as a way of putting any and everybody in their place.
Yeah, I don’t need everyone to pass a purity test. Some people may want to saint him for this, but I think most people recognize prior bad actions and condemn those, while still thoroughly enjoying this takedown and agreeing with its major points. But Alito getting confirmed to SCOTUS knocks everyone involved in that appointment way down the run for me. Him and Thomas are monsters and the two worst justices in a crowded field.
He’s a registered Democrat now so I can give him some leeway.
They all suck and this guy was happy to undermine our rights when his team was winning. However, it’s about time these people outed each other and expose the rot, even if it’s just for dog eat dog score settling. We know Meghan McCain is a terrible self centered person, we saw that with her unprofessional conduct on the View. She isn’t an idiot but laps up her privilege,traffics in her dad’s legacy, and has a long, entitled mean streak. These never Trumpers are yesterdays neocons who were relegated to the parties dustbin as soon as Obama got into the White House and the Tea Party, MAGA, great replacement fascists took over the party. Either way they both helped f*ck this country over and now they’re about to dismantle the last 50 years of progress, abd it’s gonna hit all of us hard. Alito is referencing 17th c. witch burners, while we eat popcorn. A disgruntled, bitter Republican with tea to spill is still a GOPer who’ll strip our autonomy.
There was a time when Republicans actually held political/philosophical ideas about economics and how governments should govern that went beyond “mine, me.” It is shameful that the party has degenerated into authoritarianism and disgraceful that Democrats are weak even when they’re in power–proof that money/power is indeed the root of all evil.
What time was that… the 1860s? I’m 41 and I honestly don’t remember hearing of such a time.
Merricat, I remember as well. When the far right extremists in this country call themselves Republicans, I always correct them with, “I know what a Republican looks like and you ain’t it.” I wish more people knew what that party used to be, so that they could make a distinction (assuming that there really are any Republicans still in existence). I think everyone, except for the extremists, should be making a very loud noise to make it clear we won’t give up our democracy.
Yes, the GOP used to think of themselves as the party that upheld institutions and social norms! Oh how things have changed.
I didn’t see this guy’s tweets over the weekend but I saw another tweet about how Meghan was throwing a tantrum or something and the person claimed Cindy McCain burst into tears and said “I don’t know what I did wrong! I raised four other kids” or something to that effect. Who knows how true that is but Cindy has to be pretty embarrassed at her daughter’s behavior. I can’t find the tweet and while I felt sorry for Meghan after her father died, none of her other siblings nor Cindy use John McCain’s name the way she does. People are not interested in what she has to say, her 15 minutes are nearly up as seen by the incredibly pitiful book sales. If she didn’t realize it before, she definitely realizes now.
Well … YEAH? Anyone who has ever seen or heard her open her mouth knows.
Also, is it normal to put your own name on that headstone while you’re still alive? It seems morbid. Is that an American thing? For a second I though Cindy McCain had passed.
Yes, the headstone thing is common in America. When someone’s spouse dies they will buy a double plot and the headstone is made up with both names leaving the date empty for the living spouse. That date will be put on when that spouse dies and is buried beside their husband or wife.
I often wonder about spouses who end up marrying someone after their husband or wife passed. Do you get buried with spouse one??
Oh that’s a good point. Many German cemeteries have stopped selling double plots because sometimes couples die 30 years apart and the grave is “taken” for too long. You don’t buy it, you pretty much rent it for a few decades. Maybe another reason was divorce rates. It’s a whole thing, the rules how and where you can bury people are super strict.
But from what I have seen, you only put your name on the headstone when you actually die.
My great-uncle married a widow; they were married for about 30 years until her death. His wife had buried her 1st husband with a headstone that had his (the 1st husband’s) name & her name on it. However since she remarried to my uncle for the rest of her life, she decided that my uncle would be buried with her too, that it would be the 3 of them at the burial plot. She died in the late 90s and is buried beside her 1st husband and my now 91-year-old great-uncle will be buried beside her on the other side of her when he dies.
My minister, who was like a grandfather to me, died when i was 20- in 1992.
His amazing wife did not die until 2008. they put her name on their shared tombstone when he died- and i always hated that.
But i don’t think it is terribly uncommon.
My father died 19 years before my mother- the gravestone looked a bit weird with just his name at the top and a blank below for where my mother’s name would be carved in 2020- but i definitely preferred that method.
Thank you for covering this. I laughed so hard watching Schmidt destroy Megan this weekend. Let’s hope she doesn’t have as much luck trading on her last name for a new tv gig
I was genuinely shocked to learn about McCain’s ties to Russia.
John McCain was often viewed as on of the few politicians who had Putin’s number. He often called out other politicians who were pro-Putin. There is a clip floating around on Twitter of him flat out saying Rand Paul is “in Putin’s pocket”.
John McCain was also the Senator who helped get the Magnitsky Act rolling (the original Obama-era sanctions on Russia).
It’s why Donald Trump mocked his service record during the 2016 campaign.
John McCain was a lot of things but this genuinely shocked me.
It was fricken beautiful. He also WENT IN on Russian money all over the McCain institute. If you have any time today, Schmidt’s Twitter IS EFFING GOLD. Drink some coffee and enjoy all. the. tea.
Same here. Never a McCain fan because he could have done so much more for veterans. Hell First Lady Dr Jill Biden has done more and that’s before Prez Joe became VP. John McCain’s sum total was a RepubliSCUM, that’s his legacy.
Oops this was for Sean re: Russian ties
I have a strong dislike for both of these people, even if it was extremely fun to read his gossip thread. He is as loathsome as his subject. His therapist line and paying him.. ugh.. seriously dude? I’ve never heard of such a thing.
I’ve been a Democrat who has volunteered for the party since 1984. I work every election, I register voters, I’ve seen discourse deteriorate since 1992 for sure, that is when it got so bad it was completely noticeable and then it began going from so bad… to so much worse. Think of this, John McCain was no saint, he was mean, he was awful, not unlike his daughter, he actually said Chelsea Clinton looked like a dog, was Janet Reno’s daughter, just such cruelty to women. I remember, Chelsea was maybe 12 or 13, the most awkward years for a young girl. Sure he apologized, but you know what, he was an adult. It was vile, unnecessary and had nothing to do with running our government. And the crazy thing is even back then, being vile and mean and awful helped win elections. And Republicans learned from that, and they just continued to be worse and worse and worse. And Schmidt had worked for them forever….So I do believe that while he and his crew at LP did find what happened on Jan 6th appalling and did hate Trump etc, lots of what they did was for the money. Liberals have more money than conservatives and we spend it on politics so… so I always wonder about his motives, even as a I relish in his gossipy outbursts.
“MY FATHER!!” Your fathers’ accomplishments are not yours you brat. Never could stand her. Take her down!!
Steve Schmidt is trash. Meghan McCain is trash. They are two trash heaps and neither is better than the other. I did enjoy him take down of that blonde monster and hope that he goes down with her. Horrible, horrible people.
Agree. Let them fight! Pray they both inflict maximum damage. Drag other Republicans into this!
Yep.
This was such an epic takedown and what the Princess of Arizona deserves. He also exposed that McCain himselfwas corrupted by Russian influence back in 2008. The GOPs disgusting slide into an anti-democracy party began long before Trump.
The book on the grave is so disgusting
Im guessing John and Cindy McCain let Meghan grow up without consequences and do/have whatever she wanted.
She sounds just like Prince William.
That could be, but McCain & Cindy had 3 other kids and none of those children have turned out like Meghan. McCain had 3 kids before having the set with Cindy and none of those kids have turned out like Meghan. Meghan is just Rhoda Penmark 2022 –those people will never change because they can’t change. Being nasty and miserable is just a part of Meghan’s fiber and being and nothing will ever change that. What can change is other people deciding they don’t want that madness in their life and shunning her.
Didn’t think I could love Steve Schmidt any more than I already did for his statement about Pence and the fly that landed on his head at that debate with Kamala, but I do. Lolz
Oh yikes, he rested up and the tea spilling continues.
This is a thing of beauty. Truly.
I’m trying to enjoy it as a stand alone event, and not be thinking someone do Javanka and the Junior next.
Also 244 books sold? That’s gotta hurt!! Pahahaha
244 hahahahahahhahaha yes!!!!!
MY FATHER is buried under this stone I’m shilling my book with.
……bully, entitled, unaccomplished, spoiled and mean….and add unintelligent…. buzzwords for an entire (Republican) grneration…