John McCain’s 2008 campaign manager took to Twitter on Saturday to declare Meghan McCain an “entitled bully” and “fourth generation wannabe,” setting off a public feud that quickly spiraled out of control.
It all started in response to reports that McCain’s new book, Bad Republican: A Memoir, has failed spectacularly, with only 244 copies sold since it came out in late April. Steve Schmidt, Sen. McCain’s senior campaign strategist and adviser for his failed 2008 presidential bid, chimed in on those reports with an epic venting session.
“I can explain this,” the Lincoln Project co-founder wrote of the poor book sales. After saying he had kicked the former The View host off the campaign’s plane in 2008 “because of her outrageous behavior,” he dubbed her a “spoiled rotten, entitled bully.”
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“Everyone who has ever worked with Meghan McCain from ABC, The View, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg and a thousand others have seen the unfiltered version of what the whole of America has seen,” he wrote.
But he wasn’t done there.
“I was the first adult that Meghan McCain ever encountered that she heard the word NO from,” he wrote in a new thread about his experiences with the then-24-year-old McCain. “I told her she was unimportant and that the Presidential election wasn’t about her.”
He claimed her own father “was appalled” by her behavior on the campaign trail, accusing her of throwing “tantrums” that “were beyond anything I have ever witnessed from any other human being.”
“Raging, screaming, crying, at the staff, at the makeup people at Secret Service,” he wrote.
After declaring that he was finally breaking his silence “after 14 years of abuse and attacks,” he capped off the rant with a scathing parting shot, calling Meghan McCain a “a bully” who was “unaccomplished.”
“She has rejected her Family’s history of service for a shallow and purposeless celebrity where she trades on a famous name like a fourth generation wannabe clipping coupons while pretending to be an heir,” he wrote.
Schmidt’s comments quickly sparked outrage among pundits like Glenn Greenwald, who accused him of “weaponizing private conversations.” But McCain herself has yet to respond to the controversy publicly. She has, however, responded to reports of her book being a flop, noting on Twitter this week that the audio version was actually #2 on the Audible best-seller list.
A request for comment sent to her talent agent on Saturday evening did not immediately receive a response.
