Elizabeth Warren Shuts Down Meghan McCain's Defense of Trump on Iran
Meghan McCain succeeded in getting Elizabeth Warren to admit that Soleimani was a "terrorist." But the 2020 Democrat argued that's not the point.
Updated Jan. 07, 2020 3:03PM ET / Published Jan. 07, 2020 12:04PM ET
The View/ABC
On Monday morning, during The View's first new show of 2020, Meghan McCain defended President Donald Trump's targeted killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani. "For me, when a big, bad terrorist gets blown up, I'm happy about it," she said.
When Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) appeared on the show Tuesday, she was quick to shut that position down.
The drama started when McCain began to praise the 2020 presidential candidate, saying, "I believe you respect the American military and respect our troops. You have traveled overseas many times. I just want to say that first and foremost." Warren must have known there was a "but" coming.
"You issued a statement calling Soleimani a murderer," McCain continued. "Later, you issued a second statement saying that he was 'an assassination of a senior foreign military official.' Now, this is a man who is obviously responsible for hundreds of American troops' deaths, carnage that we can't even imagine."
After noting that both the Treasury and State departments have designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a "terrorist organization," she added, "I don't understand the flip-flop. I don't understand why it was so hard to call him a terrorist, and I would just like you to explain the change."
Warren insisted that there wasn't a "change" in her position on Soleimani, arguing that both things can be true at the same time. "The question is what is the response that the president of the United States should make, and what advances the interests of the United States of America?" she asked. Saddam Hussein may have been a "bad guy," she added, "however, going to war in Iraq was not in the interest of the United States."
The senator continued to make her case, but McCain was stuck on semantics. "Do you think he's a terrorist?" she asked, interrupting Warren.
When Warren said Soleimani was "part of a group that has been designated as terrorists," McCain sneered and shook her head as she asked, "So he's not a terrorist?"
"Of course, he is," Warren answered finally. "He's part of a group that our federal government has designated a terrorist. The question though, is what's the right response? And the response that Donald Trump has picked is the most incendiary and has moved us right to the edge of war, and that is not in our long-term interests."
By the end of her appearance on the show, Warren was actively ignoring McCain's repeated attempts to interrupt her as she extolled the virtues of her 2 percent wealth tax. "Can we just switch gears for a second?" McCain asked, but Warren kept making her points undeterred. She simply wasn't having it.
@mattwilsteinmatt.wilstein@thedailybeast.com