Meghan McCain still cringes when she recalls the viral “schooling” she received during a 2009 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher.
McCain recalled the moment in conversation with conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings on her podcast Citizen McCain on Monday.
The “one and only time I went on Bill Maher—I’ll never do it again. Literally, I was so traumatized from it,” McCain said. “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--t out of me,” she explained.
“I cried afterward. 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…” She trailed off, indicating she’d feel standoffish.
McCain appeared on Maher’s show in 2009, at a time when, as she explained to Jennings Monday, “I had been put on TV way too early. As a nepo baby, people like putting famous kids on TV.”
Begala, a CNN political contributor and former adviser to President Bill Clinton, was a guest on Real Time during McCain’s appearance. Twenty-five-year-old McCain told Maher’s panel at the time, “The Obama administration really has to stop completely blaming everything on its predecessor,” prompting Maher to ask the follow-up, “You think that’s what Obama’s doing?”
When McCain answered, “to a degree,” Begala countered, “not to enough of a degree, I’m sorry—not nearly enough. Ronald Reagan blamed Carter every day for eight years.”
McCain blamed her lack of knowledge on her age. “I wasn’t born yet, so I don’t know,” she replied.
Begala retorted, “Well, I wasn’t born during the French Revolution, but I know about it,” to rousing applause from the audience. The comment got such a strong reaction that Maher stood and blocked McCain as if from gunfire as he quipped, “He’s a mean man!”
Flustered, McCain added, “You clearly know everything, and I’m just the blonde here.”
The podcast host said Monday that despite her embarrassment over the moment, “It did teach me lessons. Like, you have to come hyper, hyper prepared when you go on any TV outlet.”
