Public figure in her right, a conservative voice of the view, defending her politics, even as the president attacks her fathers legacy. I was never a fan of john mccain, and i never wl be. With senator mccains brand of statesmanship increasingly feeling like something from a bygone era, what do the mccainsa now . Firing line with margrget hoover is made possible by. Additional funding is proved by. Rp ate funding is provided by. Cindy mccain, welcnd the firing line. Nk tou. Thank you. But, you know, candidly, i alwawa want to say, like, we are personal friends, as well, and im a huge fan of firing line and ew up watching it, so i think its important to, you know. To didilose the fact that that were friends and come on this show, but, um, you know, its sucan iconic brand. Well, im grateful to have bo of you here because it has now been slightly more than aye since the country lost senator mccain. And he was a stalwart defender of Democratic Values around the world, in the United States nate, a candidate for the presidency of the United States, and d war hero. And i think about john mccainsd legacy eve, and i wonder just in n e year since his passing, mrs. Mccain, what you feel the public has gotten right about yourle husbandcy. I think theyve gotten most of it right. Ryi mean, people tell me e day theres not a day that passes meat someone doesnt say t we miss him. We missed his dignity, hist. Resp we missed his ability to bring peopleogether. Theres a wide divide right now, and he reallll he was the one together during ths he wasthis in the senate. For me, i miss humor and partisanship, as well, which is i know not something everyone always bringso it, but he was really funny, and he didnt take himself seriously. Ur theres a piof him giving manu raju, whos a capitol hill reporter, the devil ears behind his head. He always found levity and friendship in politics. Ted kennedy was one of his closest friends, obviouslyjo biden, joe lieberman, lindsey graham, and i miss i miss that it was cal, that politics was collegial when he was still there. So, i mean, im glad you mentioned ted kennedy because, you know, he had many piec of legislation, but two of his trademark pieces of legislation were these really historic moments where he reached across the aisle, one with Russ Feingold, and then the other with ted kennedy one on immigration reform, the other on Campaign Finance reform. And it fee like a bygone era when that kind of legislate collaboratn and cooperation can happen. I remember seeing the pictures of them, and, cleay, these lines of very different world views, sitting together intently trying to find a way forward. And i truly believe weve seen the last of that. Hos so divisive now, and i know for a fact, evenh hes not here, my husband would be very disappoied in what now, what its descended into. Whats happened, structurally or systemically, that you thin that has made it impossible to back to . Well, in my opinion, the social media has made it very difficult for members of congress or members of the senate to work in an efficient manner. In my opinion, i think that when people are so divisive o twitter towards you or with you or whatever it may be, it doesnt help anything, and i think all too often our members are rereonding to twitter rather th doing whats right. A sther thing that johnhnccain was known for is being a maverick. Id like you to take a look at one of those maverick moments, perhaps his last, where he turned his thumbs down and voted against overrning the Affordable Care act. [ gasping, appuse ] now, theres a backstoryo that moment. He risked his life to come back to the capitol to take that vote. Mmhmm, biggest fight i ever got in with him in our life, ever, and i was em as you rr, i was screaming at him in the e spital because he had just had surg his tumor for his brain cancer, and it was danroro to fly, and i just remember that flight from phoenix to d. C. Is one of th wot moments and experiences of my entire life because i was watching him hhe entire time worried something was gonna happen, yeah. Did you know how he would vote . I didnt. I knew that they were a lot of people pressururg him. I also knew that he never agreed with the bill if the bill wasl not written correctly. He stated very clearly he had problems with the process and the way the system hadad d brokn, that it had been done behind closed doors, th republicans had campaigned on it for years and years. Right. And they wert able to deliver r at they had promised the american people. I want you to also listen towh he said about what was going on in congress in that time. Lets trust each. Lets return to regular order. In wevvbeen spiour wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to nd way to win without help from across the aisle. Were getting nothing done, my friends. Were getting nothing done do you think regular orderve can return, or is it also about leadership . Well, it is about its a great deal about leadership, but i also know because ve been around a long time that washingtons a pendulum. You see it swing one way, and then you see it swing another way. I think were probably gonna have to get through 2020, to be honest with you, in my opinion. Its just were too separated ri,t now, not only as parti but as a country. Why 2020 . Well, i think that thats its either makeitorbreakit. Either trump wins or doesnt, or biden wins or doesnt, and thats a hurdle that i think a lot of people see we have to jump over before we can fix this, one way or another. One of the things the Mccain Institute focuses on is characterdriven leadership. Yes. What is characterdrive leadership mean to you . Well, what it means and whate he wit, you know, with regardrdto the institute, is about teaching young professionals, midcareer professionals from around the world, bringing them here to the united stas and spending a year were t talking party politics, were talking about making really good decisions for your country or for your community, whatever it may be. Making decisions t tt maybe arent always the easiest to make. You know, some of the hardest things john ever didere making the right decisions on things. Mrs. Mccain, you said that you have never been prouder of him than when you heard his concession speech after the election on november 4th in08 i want to watch a moment of what he said. A century ago, president Theodore Roosevelts invitation of booker t. Washington t at the white house was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a wory bigotry of that ti prideful there is no better evidence of this than the election of an africanamerican to the presidency of the United States. Let there be no reason now [ cheers and applause ] let there be no reason now for any american to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, ththe greatest nation on e [ cheers and applause ] he then went on to say he would do everything he could to help the incoming presesent, rack obama. And he even, you know, had the privilege of having barack obama eulogize him at t s passing. Mmhmm. Mmhmm. How was that relationship . I you knowas y it had its moments, you know, because they disagreed on things, but john believed in the spirit of the debate ande believed in ghteousness of the debate. That speech to me, when i read it, because he previewedt for me, ive never heard in prprably good as that ever againech as becae it the right thingca to say, and it was the thing that the country needed to hear. Mmhmm. Especially with thatel tion. So i was very proud of him. I was always proud of him, b bry i was ro of him that ght. You may not know this, but in 1998, johnn appeared on the original firing line with tlliam f. Buckley jr. , d he was speaking abon smoking, and he brought meghan up. Lets ta a loo i i read somewhere that, in the last two or three years, the number of leading mewhwh are seen smoking has increased byby00 or 500 over against seven or eight years ago. Ishere something we can do about it . Leonardrddicaprio is anmy object o3yearo daughters affection to the degree which i have never experienced. So he smokes, shell smoke. Yeah. Yeah, i mean, this young n has captured the hearts of every 13yearold girl in america, and what does he do throughout the movie . Theyre continuously smoking. Bruce willis in the die hard movies he smokes continusly through those,nd im not picking on hihior leonardna i have othererroblems with leonardo, but. [ laughter ] the fact is. D he seduur daughter. Yes. To distraction. . You know, he has a w h w anyway, well, thats not surprising. He has a website . They have a chat room website, my daughter and herer friends, so that they can chatou. About leonardo. About leonardo. Its remarkable. Ts what he talked about with william f. Buckley . [ laughter ] okay, everyone. By the way, i do n smoke cigattes and never he, so just but i did have a hush ondad. Him. W wch means it starts in the home. [ laughter ]to listeow seriously he took you. He was super tapped in to where you are and what you thought ant what you were taking seriously. Yeah, i mean, almost like, sometimes i wish he would have pulled me back a little bit, but. [ chuckles ] been a little bit more involveded he, you know, he was wild when he was younger, and he r,h were so mike in so many ways, and to the point that metis it its the good and the bad. Like, i think people see me on the view sometimes and my executive producers like, youralways shooting from the hip, and you just react, and youre intense, and you believe what you believe, and im like, where do you think i got that one e om . So john mccain seems to have a new fan baseseod, and its in the democratic party. Mmhmm. Heres a Campaign Going on, ats really interesting to me is how Many Democrats are invoking hisame and his memory for some of their own purposes. I want to show you a look. And then the late, great john mccain, at that moment, at about 2 00 in the morning, killed his [ cheers and applause ] atmpt totoake healthcare from millions of ople in this country. I was in afghanistan. With john mccain 2 years ago this past summer. I think it mayave been senator mccains last trip bere he was sick. Mrs. Mccain, what do you think about all these candidates invokiki your husbands meryry i thihi my husband would have a real chuckle over it, i really do. Yeah. Ou know, i respect them, and thats vsy nice that they would use him, you know, and relay their experiences that they hadi him. But you havent always loved it, meghan. I iemember when he was orge wallace, when he was accused of being racist for eve attemptingn against the first africanamerican candidate, andndagain, my mom is much more forgiving than am, and i remember people taking real low blows and low shots at him, and i also appreciate people respecting and bringing him up, but i also think that him so much and demonizedized mitt romney so much, maybe it diwouldnt have bred the f ground for trump because trump didnt juscome. It took a long time to get there, so people now show these to reach across the aisle, toing work alongside he was a truly decent, wonrf man. Im not justjuayinthat because and now we have sowho has, i believe, no character, no diipline, has no interest inwo ing with the other side, and i think that it was the beginning of it, if we look back now in the past 1010ears. Donald trump has raised your dads legacy negatively seven times since his passing. What is it that experience personally, when the president i go crazy. O i turn ie shehulk. It makes me i get very emotional and ve angry, and normally have to call you. [ chucklesus or mynd. For me, i just it make me sad. It makes me safor the president inhat way because he never really k kw john. Yeaea hnever really knew the ki of man that he is and was. And so thamakes me sad because i think he would he learneded and probably lim a great deal. But i also think that, you know, politics is politics. Ays,ou know, as john were fair game, the kids arent, kind of thing. Im fair game now. Yeah. [ chuhules ] so, i understand. He taught me great lessons about how to be controlled and not let thth get to you. I always called my dad President Trumps kryptonite cause hes like thean he can that will always be lov mad revered in history and looked upon by s politicians as an icon. And i can sit here with 100 certainty President Trump will be an extremely polarizing, controversial figure who i believe has pulled us into darkness in our country, and i g think my dad was attempt pull us into the light. Ms. Mccain, you just said,ys you know, you re fair game, the kids arent. Meghan said, well, now i am fair game. Kn yo, youre fair game now because youre a cohost of the view, a daily potical Television Show that has been called the most important america. Television show in what is your experience . cause you really are the onlyre blican on that set i say conservative, because there are other women thathe defineelves as republican, and and youre a conservative. And you defend conservatived credentials lues every day from that seat. I do. I want to look at one thingls youvesaid about it. Okay. And i was trying to explain because one of my producers this morning was saying, why do people love him so much . , and i was liometimes its not just that they love trump so much, its that they hate the same things trump hate thats whats going on . Who, black people, you mean and immigrants . No, i mean who do they hate . Who do they hate . You know what, joy . I really come here every day openminded, just trying to plain it, and its not a fun job for me every day. W b do they hate . I know youre angry. You bet im angry. I get that youre angry that umps president , like a lot of people are, but i dont think problem. At me is gonna fix the but being the sacrificialic republican every day, im just trying to heres the thing dont feel bad for me. Im paid to do this, okay . Dont feel bad for me. [ laughter ]nt my finest mon all of tv. If i mean, i tnk it must feell like youre a saial conservative every d d, right . I mean, you have to the country is evenldivided, pretty evenly divided ideologically, right . But youre the only one of those four or five that are espousing a view that a much larger percentage of the country holds. Well, i thinkts why you and i became friends originally is there just arent that many conservative women realin ones ainstream m dia. For me, its interesting that the media ways will allow one conservative on a giant panel across all networks, unless youre at fox. Youre allowed one. And then, theres a sea of one. Myopic opini and i think thats disingenuous to whats going on, and i thin for me, i cant stand President Trump, personally. I will not be voting forim. I did not vote for him. And even for me, im sort of,ci like, not ly acceptable enough, and i do have times where you have to dend that youre explaining why trump idters support him. I take great in the fact that i sort of i did not want to join the view at all. I was not interested, and my dad told me to do it. And anything he told me e do, i would do. Fact that ive lasted longerhe than any conservative since elisabeth. And was called a mushy rino for most of my career. De all of a s im like the queen conservative, and nones more surpred abo it than i am. Do you worry about the future of the party in a posttrump world . 100 . Do you think the party is going to ronate with young people, people your age and younger . I really worry about it, because and the numbers show this, by the way. Whatever you want to say about the left or people like aoc,c, they do a really good job ofng speao young people. And i think, for us and i always laugh like, young republican groups start at 40. An,i think posttrump ameri for the party, is gonna be a ry, very dark place to rebuild. I mean, i dont know how we rebuild, but, cind you shook your head. As you think about your children, your grandchildren, and having Republican Party appeal, this concerns you . It concerns me very much, ans iak for my own home state, where the party has simply left normal what we would consider normal republicans behind. R until rty goes back to what we were best at, and thatpe was ansystem, an open tent, we invited everybody in, those are the days that i grew up in republican politics, and it was those were good ars. President trump has done some things that all of us, a ameghan said, its been theyve been controversial, theyve been different from what any other president has done and n in good ways. And yet nobody ss anything. Nobody scolds him for really was bad manners orev wh you want to call it, whatever issue it was of the day. I mean, we knowou senator mccain have if he were alive, but why why not anybody else . I dont know. I dont understand. I think fear of not being inr office or in p well, theyre terrified of him, politically, i believe. Do you think if your husband up to the presidenwouldstanding give courage to others to do the sa . Yeah, he gave cover to a lot of people. Mmhmm. I want to ask you a another thing thathe Mccain Institute focuses on, and thats sex trafficking. Oh, yeah. M i mean, this is one of the pillars and priorities of the Mccain Institute, ich is associated with Arizona State university and is a think tank. What ignited your passion for this issue . Well, r rlly, a very long time a, when i brought meghans sister home from bangladesh, she was from Mother Teresas orphane. And so, several years later, i had an opportunity to t Mother Teresa in calcutta, and i dijust that. And after i met r and had you know, we had pictures taken and all at kind of stuff. I was on my way out to leave the country, but i stopped to buy some sari material for my daughter bridget. And while i was buying it, there was this kinof rumbling through the floor of the kiosk i was in, and so i asked the g behind the counter, and he saiai oh, no, its just my family. They live down there. And i looked down, and you could kind of see between the slats, and i could see all these little eyes looking up at me. Theyere clearly children bei kept down there. And it wasnt you know, th werent his. It was just o it was othose things it was the moment i didnt know what i was looking at, i had no idea what this was or whether or not anyone could fix it, kind of where i was coming from. So it took me years to really figure out not onlwhat it was but what i could do. How big a deal is this . Its epidemic. Its absolutely epidemic. Whats it gonna take really make a difference, to really make an impact in this fight . A change of attitude, number one. Y certaire awareness, which is what were doing. But more importantly, the understanding that this is a simple humanrights issue. E, its not simut it this is a basic huma