Meghan McCain's Rant About the Iran Deal Goes About as Well as You'd Expect 

Another day, another chaotic episode of ABC’s The View (or, as many Americans know it, What the Hell Is Meghan McCain Even Talking About Right Now?). During Wednesday’s “Hot Topics” segment, the panel tackled Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. This is a complicated issue that deserves far more than 10 minutes on The View, but our heroes forged ahead anyway.

First, Whoopi Goldberg pointed out that Trump’s decision to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—which saw Iran curb its nuclear development in exchange for the lifting of devastating economic sanctions—has been opposed by America’s diplomatic partners and even by some of his own advisers (though he mostly got rid of the ones who disagreed with him). Joy Behar noted that Trump seems to be dedicated to undoing everything Barack Obama did.

That’s when Meghan McCain jumped in. She claimed that the U.S. sent $400 million to the “largest state sponsor of terror,” adding, “I don’t care who you are but we shouldn’t be giving money to a country where people go out in the streets and scream death to Israel, death to America.”

About that $400 million: it was Iran’s money to begin with. Iran gave the money to the U.S. to purchase fighter jets prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution. When the Shah was overthrown, the U.S. did not deliver the jets. So, in 2016, the U.S. returned the money. I suspect that whoever is writing McCain’s cue cards knew that and is playing a cruel trick.

Anyway, Goldberg interrupted to remind McCain of America’s rich history in actually funding terrorism. She specifically named the Iran-Contra scandal, which was partially engineered by Oliver North. North is now the president of the NRA, which is itself pretty much a domestic terror organization. Funny how that works.

McCain responded by doing her usual “resigned mother” act, expressing heartbreak over her fellow co-hosts being totally cool, if not ecstatic, at the prospect of throwing money at terrorists.

When Sunny Hostin pointed out that five other countries were involved in the JCOP—the UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China—McCain jumped back in, which led to this lovely exchange with Goldberg:

MCCAIN: Russia and China? Which you rage against all the time about our relationship with Russia, so now you’re telling me that we should do what Russia does as well? I’m sorry, it’s difficult for me to sit here and accept that we should be funding terror and I cannot get behind it.

GOLDBERG: Here’s what’s hard for me to accept. You guys don’t have another plan! You don’t have a way to get Iran to comply. You don’t have jack!

As the segment faded, McCain could be seen mumbling, “that’s not true, that’s not true.” OK Meghan!