Meghan McCain’s new show, “Raising McCain,” may surprise you.
It isn’t another partisan hackfest like the ones on cable news. And it isn’t another show where someone tangentially tied to a more famous person buys shoes and throws champagne. The series, airing on the brand-new Millenial-targeting Pivot network, is a clever docu-series in the tradition of Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock.
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The first episode (which you can Saturday on Pivot, or right now by clicking here) is a sometimes dizzying look at how little privacy we have left. In the episode, McCain finds herself haunted by old online dirt. She registered as an independent and voted for John Kerry for president (she later registered Republican as a Father’s Day gift to her dad, Sen. John McCain). And there’s a cleavage shot she regrets. (Her high school nickname, she discloses, was Meghan McCans.)
As she told TheWrap, one of the greatest threats to her privacy is her father – but not for the reasons you might think.
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TheWrap: You said at a recent panel, “We’ve been given a climate right now that is really f—ed up and awful. So Millennials have to change it.” Did you get a lot of heat for that from older people?
I get heat for every single thing I do. So if I did it’s just par for the course. It’s just another day in my life. People have this idea of Millenials being this arrogant me-me-me generation and that’s not my opinion, and I love that this network doesn’t think that either.
A lot of baby boomers in the audience came down on you, and that was a generation that threw off the previous one in a huge way.
I understand hesitation, I understand cynicism with a new network. But I believe in the future and I believe in taking risks and I believe in gambling. Clearly my father does as well, and that joke has taken on new meaning since last week.
Pretty savvy to bring up the gambling thing before I could.
Bring it up all day long. Everyone’s bringing it up.
Did you give him any advice about social media?
He’s a really good tweeter. He’s always tweeting about the show and tweeting pictures. I think he’s got it covered. Even though I’ve asked him to stop tweeting pictures of me and our family without asking me to look first. He tweeted one for me at the cabin and I didn’t have makeup on. I had to say, ‘Don’t put that to 1.7 million people on the internet. I look like s—.’ I’m in my sweatpants at the cabin drinking beer. It was like a really horrible photo.
It seems like every generation thinks theirs is the right one and the previous one is full of idiots, and then you grow up and do the same thing that they did. How are Millenials different?
I think Millenials have one of the toughest environments to take over. We have a war, the environment, climate change, the economy, I could go on and on. And I think we’re the most capable of changing and I think we’re the most united because of social media. I just believe we don’t have another option because if we don’t, the world’s going to end. I mean maybe that’s a little dramatic, but I just believe in young people and I see nothing but good and possibility.
I’ve given speeches at colleges for the past four or almost five years during the spring and fall and the smartest, most interesting, most well-researched questions I’ve ever gotten, other than from political journalists, are always from college students.
And I don’t have to define myself to young people. If I say I’m a Republican who supports marriage equality, they’re like, cool. Anybody over 40, it’s a big f—in’ issue.
Do you think the Republican Party should go back to financial arguments and –
National defense? Yes. Yes. And I think if it would simmer down on social issues people would come running to this party. There’s such an obsession with women’s reproductive rights, gay marriage, et cetera. And we keep losing elections. And unless we change that attitude and have a comprehensive immigration reform in the naext election cycle, we can say sayonara to ever winning again. Period.
Do you ever want to run for office?
No. Never. [Grabs reporter’s recorder to pull it closer.] Never never never.
“Raising McCain” airs on Pivot at 10 p.m. ET Saturday. The network airs on select cable systems, as well as Dish and DirecTV, and through AT&T U-verse and Verizon FIOS. DirecTV broadband subscribers can also access Pivot through the Pivot app.