Meghan McCain, daughter of 2008 GOP presidential nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain, has no high regard for Republican operative Karl Rove, telling Larry King she hates the man who she believes smeared her father in the 2000 primaries.
"I hate Karl Rove and I think he still needs to apologize to my family, which he has not done, for things that happened in 2000," Meghan McCain told King in an interview to be shown on Thursday night. "I think there was an era where Karl Rove was relevant and I don’t know why people still give him attention."
The interview can be seen on
"PoliticKING with Larry King" on Ora TV.
Politico reported on the interview based on a transcript it obtained.
Rove, who was working for the George W. Bush campaign, was blamed for starting a rumor during the South Carolina primary that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. The rumors referred to John McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh.
Rove denied being behind the rumor, but Meghan McCain isn't buying it. And she said the
recent story in which Rove questioned whether Hillary Clinton suffered a serious brain injury is another example of Rove's tactics.
Meghan McCain called the comments "disgusting," adding, "I think what we saw with Karl Rove talking about her health, though, is sort of just the beginning, just the tip of the iceberg of what’s going to happen with the attacks on her."
Meghan's father, John McCain, sounded far more forgiving.
"I don't hate Karl Rove at all. The campaign is over," John McCain said Thursday on Fox News Channel's
"Your World with Neil Cavuto." "I've moved past it."
But, he said, he understands how his daughter feels. Family members always take such attacks the hardest, he told Cavuto.
Asked about the political clashes the father and daughter sometimes have been known for, John McCain said, "She's an adult, and we have spirited discussions. But I don't try to tell her what to do. … I do not always agree with her, and I think it's very healthy if we don't agree sometimes."
In Meghan McCain's interview, King also asked whether the choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate hurt John McCain's chances in 2008.
"I think my father could have had Jesus Christ as his running mate and it wouldn’t have mattered in '07," she said.
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