There was a lot to unpack from President Trump’s shouty, unhinged Fox and Friends interview Thursday morning, which touched on everything from his Veterans Affairs secretary pick withdrawing to James Comey’s memos and inexplicably, the 2016 presidential debates. He also may or may not have incriminated himself by discussing the Stormy Daniels scandal after news broke Wednesday that his longtime personal attorney, who brokered the deal with Daniels, plans to plead the fifth.
The latter was the topic of conversation while discussing the interview on The View, which ended up leading to a blowout between Joy Behar and Meghan McCain. Trump admitted to the Fox News hosts that Cohen had represented him with the “crazy Stormy Daniels deal,” which conflicts with his previous remarks on the subject.
After some back and forth about what this new implication might mean, Joy Behar deadpanned, “You know, today is Melania’s birthday. Happy birthday Melania.”
Obviously, Joy was just making a sarcastic remark about how crappy it was for Trump to discuss his alleged mistress on national television on his wife’s birthday (on top of not getting her a gift, which he also offered at the start of the interview, unprovoked), but Meghan McCain wasn’t having it.
“That was necessary, come on! That’s so mean,” McCain retorted. “You think that was appropriate, yesterday we all talked about how we collectively like Melania, and this has to be a hard thing so you’re making fun of her pain.”
Behar tried to explain that she wasn’t making fun of Melania, but McCain shouted, “You are! You just did!” “You don’t have a sense of humor, that’s your problem,” Behar fired back.
The other hosts, along with Behar, then tried to calm McCain down by pointing out that Melania wasn’t the target of the jab but she just continued to make things more awkward. “Well the audience didn’t laugh either,” McCain pointed out. “So it was a bad joke, maybe, so what,” Behar countered. “So sue me, send me to jail!”
Misplaced anger or not, McCain ought to keep things in perspective, because a perceived insult on the first lady’s behalf is honestly the least of Melania’s problems right now.