Meghan McCain‘s husband, Ben Domenech, co-founder and publisher of the extreme-right, anti-LGBTQ blog The Federalist, is being sued and she’s not happy about it.
“My husband made a joke on Twitter and now you’re all paying for the government to sue him,” McCain tweeted yesterday, along with a video of Domenech explaining the lawsuit against him.
My husband made a joke on Twitter and now you're all paying for the government to sue him. ?https://t.co/hGDTy8APwk
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) March 24, 2022
Feel free to watch the video yourself. Or, we can summarize it for you…
Basically, in 2019, Domenech, tweeted a “joke” threatening the people who work at his LGBTQ hate blog that if they ever tried to unionize he would send them “back to the salt mine”.
FYI @fdrlst first one of you tries to unionize I swear I'll send you back to the salt mine
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) June 7, 2019
Domenech wrote the tweet on the same day of a walkout by union employees at Vox Media.
In response, the National Labor Relations Board filed a formal charge against FDRLST, Media, LLC, claiming the tweet constituted an “unfair” labor practice.
In 2020, a National Labor Relations Board administrative judge determined the timing of the tweet was, indeed, meant to be a “threat” to Domenech’s employees and, therefore, violated federal labor laws.
Related: Fact checkers take Meghan McCain to task for calling her homophobic husband “sexy” and “brilliant”
“Obviously, the FDRLST employees are not literally being sent back to the salt mines,” Judge Kenneth Chu said in his ruling. “Idioms have, however, hidden meanings.”
“In viewing the totality of the circumstances surrounding the tweet, this tweet had no other purpose except to threaten the FDRLST employees with unspecified reprisal, as the underlying meaning of ‘salt mine’ so signifies.”
For the last two years, the case has been slowly working its way through the court system and is now pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Here’s how folx have been responding to Meg’s tweet about the whole thing…
Why do people think that freedom of speech it without consequences? He was free to say what he said. However that doesn’t mean it’s without consequence. That’s like saying making death threats is freedom of speech & there shouldn’t be consequences for it.
— Luna (@greenbug68) March 24, 2022
It’s always just “a joke” when someone’s called out on their poor judgement and/or a consequence looms before them.
— kassandra lang (@fembratt) March 24, 2022
I’m sure his employees told him it was real funny, because what else are they going to do without a union?
Every employer should know the law, and I’m sure he does: he just hates having it apply to HIM.
Which is very much on-brand.
— Randy Winn (@rewinn) March 24, 2022
Headline Correction:
My husband made an inappropriate “joke”, which could reasonably be viewed as an illegal threat, and now he’s facing consequences which makes me mad.
— MainelyJules 💚🌈🌻 (@MainelyJD) March 25, 2022
— Boldly Blue (@BoldlyBlue) March 24, 2022
Oh no! The consequences of my actions.
— Mike Nagel (@MJNags) March 24, 2022
Do you experience any joy? Just curious
— Anya Alvarez 🏌🏾♀️ (@anya__alvarez) March 24, 2022
Rich people really don’t want to pay people a living wage, they will spend whatever it takes to bust unions so they can pay people peanuts.
— Lou Ellen Johnson (@lejohnso) March 25, 2022
I never find Ben funny.
— Marty & mom 🇺🇸🇺🇦🐕🦺🐈⬛🐈⬛ (@colleengrott) March 25, 2022
Welp I’m glad he didn’t blame Joe for once. pic.twitter.com/RtDM7vKwe1
— Babs (@Basia1953Babs) March 24, 2022
In addition to making “jokes”, Domenech has a looooong history of making disparaging remarks about queer people on Twitter, and he once had to issue an apology to SCOTUS Justice Elena Kagan for trying to out her. And his website regularly publishes homophobic and transphobic hit pieces.
Related: Meghan McCain was just made an official Ru Girl and people are pissed
McCain, who claims to be an LGBTQ ally, has never publicly denounced her husband’s antigay remarks or addressed the fact that she personally profits from the money he makes from peddling anti-LGBTQ hate speech.
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
Cam
McCain, who’s never had a real job, inherited a fortune and was only hired becuase at the time her father was chairman of the committee that oversaw TV networks in America supports her husband in his bigotry and in his attack on working families.
Why should McCain empathize with workers when she’s never worked a real day in her life? Typical Republican.
BigJohnSF
Her mom is the one with the money. I suspect she will inherit when Cindy goes, but not yet.
Max
@BigJohnSF maybe the mom would leave everything to Meghan’s adopted sister, Bridget, instead.
Jollijerk92
It’s funny that we don’t talk about how her dad supported nazis in Ukraine.
The Accidental Polemicist
@Jollijerk92
Do you still beat your wife?
MarcyMayer
Cindy McCain received a political appointment from Sleepy Joe, the dementia patient. Perhaps Sleepy Joe can call off the dogs.
Den
Once again “Marcy” (it’s probably actually Marc…we all know what you are), provide a verifiable link to something (anything, you fool) that indicates dementia in Biden. There are literally hundreds of videos and articles that point to actual things Trump has done or said indicating either a lack of intellect, dementia or both. Provide ONE for Biden that isn’t a GIF, short manipulated soundbite, speculative propaganda from a far right “news” site or outright lie.
Men like you have neither business nor purpose here, and you insult all transgender people when you lie and claim you are one.
The Accidental Polemicist
@Den
Ronny Jackson, M.D. who was White House Physician under Barack Obama and Donald Trump, has been critical of Biden’s mental cognition and fitness for office since the 2020 campaign and claimed the former vice president has ‘always been prone to gaffes.’
Two-thirds of likely voters want to see Biden complete the same cognitive ability test Donald Trump took when he was in office, a new poll revealed last week.
Is it time to invoke the 25th Amendment?
barryaksarben
Marcy my little babushka, is that the correct pronoun for a straight white male who just happens to have a women’s first name and pretends he is a trans woman. Your dishonesty is so glaring why would anyone believe any fu*king thing you have ever said. NONE OF US REAL GAY PEOPLE THAT IS FOR SURE. Megans husband is a monster and a giant pos who wants to enslave people so he can steal their wages. The very idea of a salt mine is something he supports. He also has a very tiny tiny tiny penis as all truly homophobic men do
johncp56
I gave Her a pas for her father was cool respectful and a war hero, and her mother is gentle, but after I learned about where and who her husband worked and beliefs are, and remember her on the View saying her gay friends are close, I call Hypacrtacal F!@#$%^&*(ING lol conservative summy sticky Creep!! making me choke on the word con-servative!!! shamless piggies
Creamsicle
She tried to rebrand the Republican party in the mid-aughts to appeal to Millenials (then called Gen Y). Then the financial crisis stunted all of our careers and incomes. Only new that the Great Reignation has employers sweating have incomes started to rise…along with inflation that makes that reduces the buying power of that pay increase.
She’s a failed politico who tried to make a career riding the coattails of her father, and she’s still doing it with his corpse. I’d have more respect for her if she’d decided to sell Amway at this point. She and her husband can rot for all I care, but they won’t because she was born into money and privilege and will continue to fail up.
Fahd
He’s anti-union too? Shocker, not.
His public statement on Twitter was very clearly an “unfair” labor practice, as the judge explained above.
He may be able to find sympathetic judges in the Circuit Court, but it’s going to cost him a lot of money.
Meghan is probably signaling his (and her) followers that soon they’ll be receiving a fundraising letter asking them to help with the legal fees. The world is so unfair to people of their standing.
Jaquelope
Doesn’t he know that a joke needs to be funny, or at least indicated that it is meant to be a joke?
I’ve seen this happen quite often where someone makes a remark, gets called out on it, and then claims it was “only a joke, lol”.
Mr. Stadnick
Meghan My Father was Senator John McCain McCain is in a constant dither, and would love nothing more to have more attention.
Kangol2
Looks like Meghan’s plagiarizing right-wing fanatic husband put his foot in it again. Oh well!
CNY1983
“thems the breaks kid. Suck it up “cowboy” and quit feelin sorry for yourself you big crybaby. Maybe it will teach you a lesson about your ugly mouth. We know who wears the panties in your family, YOU! Need your wife to come to the twitter rescue and save you from the big bad libs?
By the way my own advice: stop watchin conspiracies and start watchin TEETH WHITENING VIDEOS, your teeth are dirty, mishapen (invisiline) and too small for your fat head.
Need any other advice?”
”
-me
jt1990
I was hoping for something funnier…not sure I even get it? That being said, every group has their Meghan McCains and Ben “FridgeRaider” Domenechs to make them look silly. Enjoy your laughs while you can folks, there’s a big red tsunami due to make landfall in November!
Den
Funny how Trump no longer seems to have any pull when he makes endorsements, so has decided to refrain until it is very clear who the favorite is (a clear indication of his narcissism and dullness). Seems the Republican party is a bit fragmented to foment a “red tsunami” come November. The most loony tunes among them have alienated their constituent who have come to understand these folks’ self absorbed nature, and centrists and progressive democrats are mounting well funded campaigns at this point.
Plus the incessant whining, snowflake crying, lies and culture wars bull only goes so far and the right has nothing else to offer. By contrast the center and left have real policy proposals and real empathy rather than empty posturing.
Tsunami my ass!
Den
“not sure I even get it?”
Well then, nobody need ever wonder again what a dullard you are. You just made it clear as a bell!
Pardon me for laughing in your face, but you are just so stupid that I am unable to control my pity, disdain and ridicule.
The only red tsunami I can see is when folks as dull as you forget to ask tops to use some lube (though I suspect you won’t get that either as you are likely just another hetero troll). Voters are more intelligent than you bumpkins think, and since the right has nothing to offer and your “son of God” Trump has gone off the rails, this notion of a “red tsunami” is laughable.
Creamsicle
Republicans aren’t promising anything worthwhile. Democrats are just failing spectacularly to deliver on the promises that made to progressives. I am glad that Biden beat Trump, but he was running on a campaign of “Not Trump.” That is no longer enough. Trump will not be re-elected.
I have serious doubts that he will actually run again, and if he does, I have doubts that he can win the primary and amass the kind of fervor he got in 2016. Winning office was always a vanity contest to him. He didn’t actually want the job, and his base already knows that he won’t “hurt the people he’s supposed to be hurting,” because he failed to deliver on the promises he made them. The 2017 tax law passed under him ended up hurting a lot of blue collar workers, costing them tens of thousands of dollars. People notice that kind of a drop in daily quality of life. Despite so much of right-wing media blaming Biden for inflation, people are aware that the bulk of covid stimulus happened during the Trump presidency, including the bungled PPP loan program.
Many companies, including my former employer, was granted and forgiven millions of dollars in PPP loans and still laid off and furloughed over half their staff. A lot of PPP money went to large companies who had no liquidity challenges during lockdowns and just saw a chance for a government handout while small businesses saw little to no money from PPP because those funds were distributed through banks.
Also, 2020 saw a massive printing of dollars, including 2 TRILLION just for the Fed Overnight Reverse Repo fund meant to provide liquidity to overleveraged banks and hedgefunds, which kept markets in a speculative bull run. Now ANY significant market perturbations, like the impending insolvency of China’s Evergrande bonds, threaten to cause a domino effect that can easily take down the “too big to fail” banks in a way that will dwarf the 2008 global financial crisis that was caused by extended cheap monetary policies from the Bush administration. Republicans just have a very bad track record when it comes to keeping life stable. They’re most appealing to their base as an opposition party, which is why they always act like victims, even when they’re in control of all branches of the federal government.
Jim
Wait wait. I missed when she mentioned her father!!!!
202gay.com
They are not worth discussing. I don’t understand why there are so many comments…