Meghan McCain's last name is certainly recognizable, but the former co-host of The View believes that she's different from all the other "nepo babies" of the world, particularly those whose families are in politics. The term, which is short for "nepotism babies," refers to the children of famous or influential people who use their position to get ahead in their own careers. As the daughter of late senator John McCain, the TV personality would fit easily into this category, but she says that she's the exception to the rule.
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McCain made the distinction when she was firing back at something current View co-host Ana Navarro said on a recent episode. On the Dec. 14 show, Navarro said thatJoe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, was trying to "influence-peddle on his last name" amid his legal issues, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. She added, "So did half of Washington. People sitting at this table did it." Asked by her co-hosts who she was referring to, she clarified that she wasn't "talking about currently."
As EW points out, McCain isn't the only former View co-host with ties to a well-known politician. Abby Huntsman, who is the daughter of former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, hosted the show from 2018 to 2020.
McCain interpreted Navarro's comment to be about her—she co-hosted the daily series from 2017 to 2021. The 39-year-old soon wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "I don’t understand why my former colleagues @TheView @ABC bring me up and slander me on an almost weekly basis. It has been years - move on, I have. I have never been accused of a crime in my life and am a patriotic American - I would never and have never 'influenced peddled' in my life, let alone with foreign adversaries. Not all politicians children are the same - and I am no Hunter Biden. All accusations are absurd, defamatory and slanderous. I will be consulting my lawyers regarding what was libeled against me on The View this morning."
Best Life has reached out to a representative for McCain and The View for comment.
On the most recent episode of her podcast, Meghan McCain Has Entered the Chat, she expanded on her thoughts about Navarro's comments. She claims that the current View co-host has benefited from the McCain name more than she has.
"I have a long history with Ana Navarro because she was dating a funder of my dad’s campaign and then joined the campaign, I guess," McCain said, according to Deadline. "I have no memory of her ever working on my dad’s campaign, but she claims to. No one has trafficked on the McCain last name and legacy more than Ana Navarro. She throws around the fact that she worked for my dad [and] knew my dad."
McCain also tried to illustrate how she differs from the president's son. "I am nothing like Hunter Biden, I am the exception. A lot of nepo babies, particularly in politics, they struggle, they have addiction issues, there’s a lot of darkness." (Hunter has struggled with substance abuse throughout his life.) She added, "I am very proud of the fact that I never went down that road. I feel like no matter what kind of life I live, no matter how much joy I find, no matter what I do with my life, I am still going to be used in this way by a national television show and it is very hard. It feels very bullying and very abusive and I don’t know how to get them to stop."
This isn't the first time McCain has addressed the topic of nepo babies, including when it comes to Hunter. In a column she wrote for the Daily Mail in June, she called him "an elitist scumbag, the ultimate product of nepotism." As The Wrap reported, this led to backlash on social media with users calling McCain a nepo baby and posting video montages of her referencing her father.
Prior to this, McCain addressed the nepo baby label in a post on her Instagram story. "To my fellow 'Nepo babies'—just acknowledge your privilege, the opportunities your last name has gotten you and move on. It's pretty simple," she wrote in December 2022, as reported by E! News. "At some point talent and grit comes into play but let's stop acting like this is in anyway a rational burden that people know who [our] parents are—you sound like [expletives]."
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