Meghan McCain and Seth Meyers Clash Over Ilhan Omar: “Are You Her Publicist?”

Unlike some of his late night counterparts, Seth Meyers isn’t afraid to spar with his guests, and on Tuesday night, that honor fell to Meghan McCain. During the 10-plus minute interview, Meyers challenged McCain on a variety of issues, but things got the most heated when the Late Night host brought up McCain’s recent appearance on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, during which she connected Rep. Ilhan Omar to the San Diego synagogue shooting. Meyers questioned her comments, calling them “fairly dangerous,” and called out McCain’s “unfair” attacks on Omar. After much back and forth, McCain finally snapped, asking, “Are you her publicist?”

After discussing McCain’s internship at SNL and her feelings about Lindsey Graham, Meyers really dove in. “You, once again, on a Sunday news show, brought up [Omar’s] tweets again in the context of that shooting,” said the Late Night host. “I do think it’s fairly dangerous.” Meyers added that Omar has since apologized and asked if “people who talk about her need to be a little bit more thoughtful as well?” McCain pushed back, saying, “I don’t think I tied her to it, in particular. I think I’m calling out what I see as anti-Semitic language.”

“But you called it out after she’d apologized for it. I do want to establish the timeline,” said Meyers. “I think the Democrats are hedging on this, and I think it’s very dangerous,” replied McCain. “I think she is bringing her party to the extreme — extremism on this.  I stand by every single thing I’ve said, and if that makes me unpopular in this room or in front of you, so be it.”

Meyers’ audience clapped at McCain’s comeback, but the host didn’t seem to agree. “See, that’s a weird thing, that you can take the position of trying to be ‘unpopular.’ Here I am trying to find common ground on this,” he said. McCain, now in full-on sparring mode, asked if Meyers was “bothered by her language about 9/11” and whether he would “give President Trump the same leverage if he said the same thing.”

“Well, I would say that Donald Trump is certainly in no position to criticize her language on 9/11 based on the things he’s said about 9/11,” said Meyers. “Let me make the clarification between Donald Trump and Ilhan Omar, is one of them has apologized and said they’re gonna try to do better and they’re going to be educated by people who know about this — that’s what she’s said.” He went on to say that “we have to listen to other people’s perspectives,” before asking if there’s a “way for people to talk about the differences in Israeli policy without getting framed as anti-Semitic language.”

McCain referenced Omar’s tweets once more, saying, “Yeah. I just think you can’t talk about Jews ‘hypnotizing’ the world, talking about ‘all about the Benjamins.'” Meyers called her out yet again. “You do keep bringing up the two tweets that she’s apologized for, and I think that’s a little unfair to her,” he said. “Are you her publicist?” fired back McCain. “Are you her press person?”

“No, I’m just someone who cares about the fact that there’s someone out there who is in a minority, who has death threats against her, and I think we should all use the same language,” replied Meyers. “You’re asking her to be careful about her language and I’d ask everyone to be careful about theirs.”

“What would make you happy coming out of my mouth right now? I’m genuinely curious,” asked McCain in a tone that indicated she was not just genuinely curious. “I’m perfectly happy with everything coming out of your mouth, and I like that we spent this time together,” said Meyers. As you can probably imagine, the interview wrapped up shortly after their blow-up. Thank god for commercial breaks, right?

Watch the Seth Meyers-Meghan McCain cage match in the clip above. Their discussion about Ilhan Omar begins at the 6:37 mark.

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