What To Know
- Meghan McCain revealed on her podcast that she is still “traumatized” by her 2009 appearance on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, where she was publicly embarrassed by Paul Begala.
- McCain discussed the incident with Scott Jennings while reflecting on Dylan Douglas’ recent CNN appearance, drawing parallels between her own early TV experiences and his.
- She emphasized the importance of being thoroughly prepared for political debates on TV and admitted that her negative experience taught her valuable lessons.
It’s been over 15 years since Meghan McCain appeared on an episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, but she is still “traumatized” by the experience.
The former View co-host opened up about the situation on the latest episode of her Citizen McCain podcast, where she spoke with CNN’s conservative commentator Scott Jennings. The pair was talking about Dylan Douglas, the son of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, who recently appeared on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip.
McCain compared it to her “one and only time” on Real Time, admitting she was out of her element in the political discussion. “I’ll never do it again. Literally, I was so traumatized from it,” the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain said, noting how Paul Begala, former advisor to President Bill Clinton, made a fool of her on air.
“It went mega viral back when things could actually go viral because there were so few outlets on the internet, and Paul Begala is schooling the living s*** out of me,” she explained, per The Daily Beast.
McCain admitted she “cried afterward,” adding, “It was a mess, like a horrible… and I’m still kind of scared of Paul Begala. Like, I still… if I were in a room with him, I would be like, very [standoffish].”
“It did teach me lessons. Like, you have to come hyper, hyper prepared when you go on any TV outlet,” she added.
During the 2009 episode, Begala slammed McCain after she argued that the Obama administration was spending too much time “blaming everything on its predecessor,” per The Daily Beast. Begala fired back, reminding her, “Ronald Reagan blamed Carter every day for eight years.”
The then 25-year-old McCain replied, “I wasn’t born yet, so I don’t know,” prompting Begala to respond, “Well, I wasn’t born during the French Revolution, but I know about it.” This comment drew large applause from the audience, while a flustered McCain replied, “You clearly know everything, and I’m just the blonde here.”
McCain addressed the topic on her podcast after Dylan Douglas’ recent CNN appearance, in which he went toe-to-toe with Jennings in a political debate. On McCain’s podcast, Jennings boasted of how he “dismantled” the 25-year-old, which reportedly upset his famous parents.
Referring to herself as “the queen of nepo babies” due to the status of her late father, McCain told Jennings that “As a nepo baby, people like putting famous kids on TV.”
However, she confessed that she’d “been put on TV way too early,” and believes the same thing happened to Dylan. “[He] should not have been booked on a show with [Jennings] because it’s like bringing a knife to a gun fight,” she said.