Cindy McCain, who has offered her support to the NoH8 gay rights campaign, told CNNs’ Erin Burnett this week that Republicans are pro-gay — it’s just the media that gets it wrong and portrays the GOP as anti-gay. McCain, whose husband ran for president on a platform that included banning same-sex marriage and was the lead fighter in the Senate against the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, says that only a few “vocal” Republicans, whom she says are “on the far right of the issue,” do not support equality. Apparently, Mrs. McCain thinks that every GOP president candidate, sans, Fred Karger, is on the far right.
In January of 2010, Cindy McCain joined the NoH8 Campaign, along with her daughter, Meghan, but in November of that year released a statement saying, “I stand by my husband’s stance on DADT,” and withdrew her vocal support for equality, especially for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, after what many speculated was a family argument with her husband, John, winning. CNN failed to report this, instead showing a clip that included Mrs.McCain saying she supported repeal of DADT.
Via Think Progress:
BURNETT: Do you find it frustrating that there’s a perception among the voting public, and maybe it’s a wrong perception, but there’s a perception that to be a play-by-the-rules Republican, you can’t be friendly to gay marriage, you can’t be friendly to abortion. All of these things, that social issues still define the party.
C. MCCAIN: I disagree with that. I think the media portrays that. I think being a Republican, being part of the party for — as many years as I have and knowing the Republicans the way I do that is not the case and that’s not the bulk of Republicans that believe in that, at all. The vocal ones, maybe the ones that are on the far right side of the issue, but I — certainly in the state of Arizona –
BURNETT: Right.
C. MCCAIN: — we are open-minded Republicans and believe in equality for all.
The fact is that Mrs. McCain is flat-out wrong. In May of last year, Gallup found a majority, 53% of Americans supported same-sex marriage equality. 69% of Democrats support equality but only 28% of Republicans. The poll also found a substantial increase in support among Democrats ferom just one year earlier, when 56% of Democrats supported marriage equality, and no change whatsoever in Republican support.
Frankly, Erin Burnett should have countered heavily on this. Instead, she framed the question oh-so-gently, then gave McCain a pass on her lie. That’s not journalism, that’s free PR.
I give Cindy and Meghan McCain my thanks for their support of gay rights, at whatever level they do. We need more people on the right to follow in their footsteps. But facts and facts and it’s not only wrong, but dangerous, to deny them. Denying these facts hides the facts that the GOP’s war on women, children, and gays isn’t doing harm. It is doing great harm. Cindy McCain, more than most, should know better.