Meghan McCain of ABC’s “The View” dared her cohosts to push identity politics in the 2018 midterms on Tuesday. McCain started by criticizing the Trump administration for playing up the fact that Gina Haspel is the first female director of the CIA, explaining that she wants to get rid of identity politics entirely. WATCH: “I want to get away from identity politics, meaning, like, if you’re a woman, you automatically have to believe these things,” she said. “We should be picking the best candidates across the board for everything.” Cohost Sunny Hostin responded by claiming people should aim to elect more women because female legislators are more likely to bring “women’s issues” to the “forefront.” “For me, my ‘women’s issues’ are foreign policy,” McCain retorted. “And the idea that Planned Parenthood is the number one issue for women in America … it’s just false.” Hostin doubled down on getting more females in Congress, to which McCain sassed, “If you go into midterm elections with that message, it’s not going to be the blue wave you think it’s going to be.” “It worked so well in 2016,” she added sarcastically. Follow Amber on Twitter<doc-sep>The economy, which in the first quarter notched its second-fastest growth pace since the third quarter of 2003, is gaining speed, with other data on Thursday showing business spending on equipment accelerated in April. Activity is being boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic's easing grip and nearly $6 trillion in relief provided by the government over the past year. "The economy is off and running," said Scott Hoyt, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "Going forward growth will be supported by the pent-up savings that households have amassed during the pandemic." Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 406,000 for the week ended May 22, the Labor Department said. That was the lowest since mid-March 2020 and marked the fourth straight weekly decline in applications. The decrease was led by Washington state, Florida and New Jersey. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 425,000 applications for the latest week. Though claims remain well above the 200,000 to 250,000 range that is viewed as consistent with healthy labor market conditions, they have dropped from a record 6.149 million in early April 2020. Pandemic-related restrictions on businesses have been rolled back, with more than half of adults in the United States fully vaccinated against COVID-19, leaving factories, construction sites, restaurants and bars, among many, clamoring for workers. The labor shortage, despite nearly 10 million Americans being officially unemployed, has been blamed on the safety net, strengthened during the pandemic by the government, to provide a temporary lifeline following the unprecedented economic and human carnage caused by the virus. (Graphic: Jobless claims, https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-STOCKS/jznpnrygmpl/joblessclaims.png) Republican governors in at least 23 states, including Florida and Texas, have announced they are ending unemployment programs funded by the federal government next month, including a weekly $300 subsidy, which businesses say are discouraging the jobless from seeking work. There is, however, no consensus that the generous unemployment benefits are keeping people home. According to JPMorgan economist Daniel Silver, an analysis of unemployment rates, wage growth and labor force participation rates in the 23 states suggested the early termination of the special benefits programs was motivated by politics rather than economics. "While some of these states have tight labor markets and strong earnings growth, many of them do not," said Silver. "It therefore looks like politics, rather than economics, is driving decisions regarding the early ends to these programs." U.S. stocks were trading higher. The dollar was steady against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices fell. BACK AT WORK A survey by Poachedjobs.com, a national job board for the restaurant/hospitality industry, found most had returned to work, with a full schedule of 30-40 hours a week. For others, uncertainty about future restrictions on indoor dining and fears of contracting the virus, whether they are vaccinated or not, were keeping them away. Fewer than 100,000 people filed claims last week under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program for the self-employed, gig workers and others who do not qualify for the regular state programs. The early termination of PUA and broadening economic re-engagement could push claims even lower and shrink the jobless rolls in the months ahead. The claims report showed the number of people continuing to receive benefits after an initial week of aid dropped 96,000 to 3.642 million in the week ending May 15. The so-called continuing claims, which are reported with a one-week lag, covered the period during which the government surveyed households for May's employment report. The decline strengthens expectations that hiring picked up this month, though raw material shortages across industries could be a constraint. The dearth of workers and scarcity of inputs were blamed for the modest 266,000 jobs created in April, a slowdown from the 770,000 added in March. In a separate report on Thursday, the Commerce Department confirmed that gross domestic product increased at a 6.4% annualized rate last quarter. The unrevised estimate followed a 4.3% growth rate in the fourth quarter. Before tax corporate profits slipped $0.2 billion after decreasing $31.4 billion in the October-December period. A rise in domestic nonfinancial corporation profits was offset by lower domestic financial corporation and international profits. "Over the year, profits should be boosted more directly by services industries as we expect consumer spending to transition back to the much-larger services category," said Jay Bryson, chief economist at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Graphic: GDP, https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-STOCKS/xlbpgaqdqpq/gdp.png) The strong growth momentum held early in the second quarter, with another report from the Commerce Department showing orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, jumped 2.3% in April. These so-called core capital goods orders increased 1.6% in March. Shipments of core capital goods gained 0.9% after rising 1.5% in March. Core capital goods shipments are used to calculate equipment spending in the GDP measurement. (Graphic: Core capital goods, https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-STOCKS/bdwpkwomapm/corecapgoods.png) With households sitting on at least $2.3 trillion in excess savings, demand booming, inventories low and profits rebounding, businesses are likely to continue investing in equipment to boost production, supporting manufacturing. "Supply chain bottlenecks and shortages of certain materials are holding back some producers, but firms are clearly investing in increased capacity," said Chris Low, economist at FHN Financial in New York. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci)<doc-sep>Meghan McCain has doubled down on her verbal attacks made on The View regarding the NFL’s national anthem kneelers, saying via Twitter she “ardently” believes everyone should stand when the song is played. McCain, daughter of U.S. senator and former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, defended herself Friday on Twitter after taking a battering on Thursday’s edition of the ABC talker. The kerfuffle came after she gave her view that players who kneel during the national anthem were wrong, with the protest leader, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, deemed “unpatriotic” by a national survey. The NFL this week ruled that players who are on the field when the national anthem is played must stand at attention or the teams will be fined an unspecified amount. Those who don’t wish to stand respectfully can stay in the locker room, the league said. Related Story NFL Will Fine Teams Whose Players Kneel For National Anthem The NFL season last year saw TV ratings decline, sponsors complain, and media attention focus on the players who sat, kneeled or raised fists in protest during the national anthem to complain about perceived injustices against black Americans. “I never go on TV and do or say anything because it’s easy – I say it because it’s what I believe in,” McCain said in a tweet Friday. “I ardently believe in standing for our flag, and I am not scared of an audience in front of me or behind the camera. I would be scared if I were a phony, betraying my values.” During The View discussion on the new NFL anthem policy, McCain said she would “never be OK” with disrespect toward the American flag. “I disagree with everyone on this table,” she said. “I would never be okay with somebody not saluting the flag. By the way, 72 percent of Americans, according to Reuters, said that they thought Kaepernick’s behavior was unpatriotic.” Co-host Sunny Hostin countered that many African-Americans called Kaepernick a patriot, and received applause from the studio audience.<doc-sep>
"The View" co-host Meghan McCain said the various scandals engulfing President Donald Trump were too confusing to understand -- but she got promptly corrected by Joy Behar. Panelists discussed Trump's tweets Monday morning claiming an "absolute right" to pardon himself and questioning the constitutionality of the special counsel probe, and McCain admitted the situation was too complicated to care about. "I think there is just this cacophony of information, and it's hard for even me to follow, which I'm open and frank about on this show," McCain said. "I think people are just, like, well, you know, if somebody happens, maybe." She said the scandals had only drawn Republicans closer to Trump, who enjoys near-universal support within his own part. "But 87 percent own party (support), that's almost a statistical anomaly, and going forward it's hard for me to even imagine -- we are the party of Trump completely," McCain said. "It's hard for me to imagine what an election looks like still defending this when most majority of voters --" Her co-host Behar cut in and asked what was so hard to understand about some of Trump's defining scandals. "What is so hard to follow about 'grab them by the genitalia?'" Behar asked. "Why is it hard to follow the insult against your father? Why is it so hard to follow the fact that he attacked Gold Star families?" Host Whoopi Goldberg said Republicans backed Trump because they believe "they're winning," and McCain excused Trump's legal claims as too crazy to be true. "With the investigation and, like, I could possibly pardon myself," McCain said. "Again, what crime are you talking about? We're, like, collusion is not a crime. What exactly are you talking about? I think (Rudy) Giuliani to a point, I don't think he is a great surrogate, but we were talking about it this morning. You guys do because he is sort of like shifting the blame in this way where nobody is really understanding what's going on." Co-host Sara Haines told McCain she should be more concerned about what Trump and Giuliani were saying. "I think he used the idea of shooting (James) Comey, if Trump were to shoot Comey, and that's the language of a dictator -- sorry," Haines said. "He said, Giuliani said, 'He could even shoot James Comey in the Oval Office and did still not be prosecuted. That's a scary statement."