Last night on Q&A, McQueen served up some truly memorable moments for the people of Australia. At times it was hard to watch (like a train crash in slow motion), but thankfully the Greens’ Mehreen Faruqi and American feminist Roxane Gay were there to counter the cuckoo.
Let’s take a look back on some truly inspirational television:
The time she accused Jacinda Ardern of plagiarising the work of the Liberal Party:
There are few people in the world who’d be critical of NZ’s PM Jacinda Ardern right now, but McQueen appears to be one of them.
When asked about the swift gun-law crackdown by Ardern following the Christchurch massacre, McQueen retorted: “We did that years ago. The Liberal Party did that years ago with John Howard.”
When members of the audience could be heard chuckling incredulously, McQueen dug her stake into the ground: “You think that’s funny? John Howard did do that. Jacinda Ardern is copying exactly.”
Teena McQueen testing the patience of every single panellist on #qanda 2nite. She’s simply incapable of representing the Liberal Party well.
— Lisa Wilkinson (@Lisa_Wilkinson) March 25, 2019
The time she defended and endorsed Donald Trump
When the panel were asked to discuss a new report into Trump’s relationship with Russia during his election campaign, Roxane Gay scathingly accused Trump of barely being able to “spell collusion”.
McQueen was not impressed.
“Well, he’s been exonerated,” she said, (even though that’s not strictly true.) “There’s nothing there. I mean, it’s two years of wasted presidency, two years of the Democrats going crazy and, you know, he did nothing to interfere with the report.”
She then went on to inform everyone that she was “probably the only person on the panel that’s spent time with Donald Trump” — referencing a brief meeting at a former Miss Universe pageant.
“He was none of those things — he was not racist, not sexist, none of those things,” she assured the audience.
Well, that clears that up then…
“Look I met Trump once and from that very fleeting meeting, I have decided he is not a racist or sexist person, please note I have arrived at this conclusion by discounting literally everything I have seen and read in the news.”
—Teena McQueen, #qanda— Benjamin Law (@mrbenjaminlaw) March 25, 2019
The time she suggested that a cock joke was the same as threatened sexual assault
Her defence of Donald Trump went further when she suggested that the infamous recording of the President boasting about being able to “grab them [women] by the pussy” was just a joke and not — as perceived by the rest of the world– threatened sexual assault.
“I just made a joke about a cock earlier on,” McQueen said. “I don’t think there’s much difference there.”
Roxane Gay very quickly and articulately pointed out the difference to her.
“A joke versus grabbing a woman and talking about sexual assault are two very different things,” she said. “I joke about bodies constantly, it’s awesome, but I’m not going to talk about grabbing a woman’s body just because I have an attraction to her. It’s called self-control.”
The time she accused Greens’ Leader Richard Di Natale of inciting violence against right wing commentators
Jumping to the defence of alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulous (who was this year banned from entering Australia due to blatant hate speech), McQueen said she simply categorised him as “an entertainer”.
“No-one could possibly take Milo seriously,” she said.
When both Faruqi and Gay interjected to convey exactly how many people took Yiannopoulos seriously and the breadth of his influence, McQueen shot back:
The “worst hate speech I’ve heard recently is (from Greens Leader) Richard Di Natale”. She further added that Di Natale had somehow “incited violence” against right wing commentator Andrew Bolt.
“The vile language used against conservatives is disgraceful”, she said.
When questioned by Faruqi about what the Greens Leader had supposedly said, McQueen fumbled before instructing her to “watch the tape back”.
The time she suggested that the rise of white supremacy was a beat up
When a video question was posed by an Adelaide woman about the rise of racism and neo-nazism in South Australia, McQueen once again defaulted to anecdotal evidence only.
With signs of neo-nazi activity in Adelaide, am I in danger? #QandA pic.twitter.com/vpngRpsqhe
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) March 25, 2019
She suggested that the conversation had reached “fever pitch”.
“I mean, if things like that are happening in Adelaide, you call the police and you get these people dealt with and carted away,” she said matter of factly.
“I’ve been to Adelaide many times, and I’m not doubting the questioner there, but if you see evidence of something like that, there’s laws to protect people from that, and you get them carted off and deal with them.
“You know, perhaps I’m in a bubble — I don’t see the growth of white supremacists that I hear constantly.”
(More audible groans from the audience)
“You can laugh if you like, but I just don’t”.
Roxane Gay: “You are in a bubble.”
The idea of putting Teena McQueen together with Roxanne Gay suggests some MAFS level casting by the ABC and I predict this will go as badly as can be expected https://t.co/wgQcmtPblF
— 𝕤𝕒𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕙𝕒 𝕞𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟 (@samanthamaiden) March 23, 2019
Yep.