Meghan McCain says her father’s presidential campaign set Sarah Palin up ‘for failure’

On Tuesday’s Hannity, Meghan McCain stopped by for her first television interview since leaving The View at the end of July. She was there to promote her new audio memoir, Bad Republican, in which McCain has a chapter about how her opinion has changed when it comes to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who ran alongside her father, John McCain, during the 2008 presidential election.

“I have a whole new lens of viewing how Sarah Palin was treated, and how the people working for my father's campaign really, you know in my opinion, treated her really horribly. Set her up for failure,” McCain said.

McCain, who had been much more critical of Palin in the past before softening her stance, pointed to Palin’s infamous interview with Katie Couric as an example of how she was set up to fail. And added that the person who facilitated that interview for the campaign, Nicole Wallace, now works for MSNBC.

“I just really hope our culture has some redemption for Sarah Palin, in the same way we have for so many other women right now,” McCain said.

Video Transcript

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- Your dad was a guy that was willing to have a lot of conflicts with people. And that happened after his funeral too when campaign managers, and even Governor Palin apparently, in this leaked list--

MEGHAN MCCAIN: Yeah--

- Weren't invited to the funeral. Why did that all happen?

KYLIE MAR: Former View co-host Meghan McCain stopped by Hannity Tuesday to promote her new audio memoir, Bad Republican. In it, she has a chapter about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who ran alongside Meghan's father, John McCain, during the 2008 presidential election, and how her opinion of Palin changed.

MEGHAN MCCAIN: I have a whole new lens of viewing how Sarah Palin was treated and how the people working for my father's campaign really, in my opinion, treated her really horribly. Set her up for failure.

KYLIE MAR: Meghan, who had been much more critical of Palin in the past before softening her stance, used Palin's infamous interview with Katie Couric as an example of how she was set up to fail and pointed out that the person who facilitated that interview for the campaign, Nicole Wallace, now works for MSNBC.

MEGHAN MCCAIN: I just really hope that the culture has some redemption for Sarah Palin in the same way that we have for so many other women right now.

- Meghan also dissected her time on the View, saying that as she helped the show get more and more popular, things became increasingly more difficult for her, both on and off stage.

MEGHAN MCCAIN: I felt like it was important to say that there is real trauma that is involved when you are targeted and targeted and targeted for not voting for President Obama, for being a pro-life woman. And I don't think that people who go into liberal spaces, which is basically every other space except Fox News and media-- I don't think you should be punished for it. And I don't think your personal life should be impacted.

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