Meghan McCain said she backed Democrats for president in the past two elections because of attacks against her family in 2000 that she attributed to George W. Bush.
McCain, on Fox News’s “Hannity & Colmes” on Tuesday, said she voted for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 even though she’s now a supporter of her father for president.
“I can be behind my father all day every day until the end of time,” McCain said. “I just couldn’t get behind President Bush. I just couldn’t. It’s personal.”
She added: “It had to do with my little sister, and like, you know, you were just saying that the wounds of a political child run really deep. And there are things that I don’t know if I’ll ever completely get over.”
Many voters in the 2000 South Carolina GOP primary falsely believed that John McCain’s youngest daughter, Bridget McCain, was born out of wedlock and that John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, was a drug addict. Bridget McCain was adopted from an orphanage in Bangladesh.
Bush defeated John McCain in that primary, effectively knocking him out of the race. McCain’s allies have accused Bush’s campaign of coordinating a smear campaign.
Meghan McCain said she also voted for then-Vice President Al Gore in 2000, but she wasn’t old enough to vote at the time. She was born in 1984.
She said that her father doesn’t share her feelings about the 2000 race.
“He’s a great forgiver, move on-er,” she said.
McCain said she registered as a Republican on Father’s Day and that her political beliefs changed after attending Columbia University, which she called “probably the most liberal school in the United States.”