MEDIA

Meghan McCain and Nicki Minaj trade barbs over COVID-19 vaccination on Twitter: 'Enough'

Bill Goodykoontz
Arizona Republic

“I didn’t have a famous rapper losing her mind at me for not being an anti vaxxer on twitter on my 2021 bingo card, but here we are.”

No one else did, either. But is anyone surprised Meghan McCain, with the above tweet, managed to work her way into the middle of Nicki Minaj’s evolving COVID-19 vaccine journey on Twitter?

If you recognize the name “Meghan McCain,” then no, probably not.

It all started Monday with Minaj tweeting that she would not get vaccinated to attend the Met Gala, which required it. In another bizarre tweet she said that her cousin in Trinidad wouldn’t get the vaccine because a friend got it and became impotent and his testicles became swollen, resulting in the friend’s fiancée calling off their wedding.

It was … a lot.

Minaj spoke her piece and moved on. McCain did not

And just like that, Minaj was the lead character in Twitter's daily drama, with tens of thousands of people weighing in. Some of them took Minaj to task for spreading misinformation — there is no evidence that the vaccine causes any such medical maladies — while others offered genuine advice. Some just made fun of her.

Nicki Minaj and Meghan McCain

Then there was McCain, angling for a supporting role in the day's Twitter explosion. At first, she simply quote-tweeted Minaj, saying, “That’s entirely enough internet for today.”

It wasn’t.

Twitter responded to McCain, as it often does, with some people agreeing with her and others calling her out for inserting herself into the story.

Then Minaj responded, too.

“Eat s--- you.”

It appears that Minaj understands one of the old adages that McCain may not: Brevity is the soul of wit.

Because that was it for Minaj’s responses to McCain. She spoke her piece and moved on.

That was not it for responses from McCain.

“I for one would definitely watch an interview with Nicki Minaj’s cousins friend with the alleged swollen vaccine testicles,” she tweeted. “I would appreciate a good journalist tracking him down.”

“Alleged swollen vaccine testicles” – also on no one’s bingo card, ever.

McCain went on to tweet that Minaj has a massive platform and that to use it to spread vaccine hesitancy is irresponsible. And frankly, McCain's not wrong about that.

Of course Tucker Carlson brought up Minaj's tweets on Fox News

She also tweeted that she and her husband, Ben Domenech, as well as her family, are all vaccinated. On Tuesday she tweeted that there are “more anti vaxxers in this country than I realized. … We are so screwed.”

Maybe, but Minaj later tweeted that she would recommend people whose employers require the vaccine to get it, and asked which vaccine her followers would recommend.

Progress, of a sort. But later, on Fox News, Tucker Carlson, no stranger to going on about vaccine hesitancy, brought up Minaj’s tweet.

Which was, of course, on everyone’s bingo card for 2021.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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