Meghan McCain rips Blagojevich pardon: He is ‘like the swampiest swamp creature in the world’

Meghan McCain on Wednesday criticized President Trump for commuting Rod Blagojevich’s prison sentence, calling the former Illinois governor “the swampiest swamp creature in the world.” 

“I don’t like this trend. I actually think there should be a higher standard for pardoning,” McCain said on ABC’s “The View.”

“Rod Blagojevich, among other things, he stopped funding for a children’s hospital. And I think if you’re messing around with sick children in a hospital and funding for the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, he actually held up an $8 million funding increase, that to me is like the lowest of the low of the low,” she added.

“And if your whole messaging is ‘drain the swamp, I’m against swamp creatures’ — Rod Blagojevich is like the swampiest swamp creature in the world. I mean, he’s basically a crocodile,” McCain continued.

“So I don’t understand why [Trump] would pardon a man who had — it just goes against — screw what’s ethically right,” she added. “It goes against his political messaging.”

TRUMP GRANTS CLEMENCY: Pres. Trump granted clemency to several high-profile convicts — including Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken and Bernard Kerik. The co-hosts question the message Trump is sending. https://t.co/dxdbvty56X pic.twitter.com/3MK4BM1HYR

— The View (@TheView) February 19, 2020

The perspective from McCain comes after Trump granted clemency to 11 individuals, including Blagojevich, prompting backlash from pundits of both sides of the aisle. The Democrat was serving a 14-year sentence after his conviction on federal corruption charges related, in part, to filling former President Obama’s. vacated U.S. Senate seat in 2008.

Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he commuted Blagojevich’s sentence, calling it “ridiculous.”

“I did commute [Blagojevich’s] sentence. So he’ll be able to go back home with his family after serving eight years in jail,” Trump said. “That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others.”

Blagojevich had served about half of his sentence before being released.