Photo: s_bukley / Shutterstock
Congrats to the new parents!
By Molly Given — Written on Sep 29, 2020
Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on Monday, Sept. 28, 2020. She and her husband, Ben Domenech, gave their new bundle of joy a very patriotic name, which is fitting for the couple: Liberty Sage McCain Domenech. While we're all familiar with Meghan McCain because of her famous dad, and the fact that she's one of the most outspoken co-hosts on The View, we're interested in knowing more about her husband, Ben Domenech.
Who is Meghan McCain's husband, Ben Domenech?
Here's what we know about Ben Domenech and their relationship so far.
Ben Domenech has an impressive resume.
Ben Domenech is a writer, blogger, and television commentator. According to his LinkedIn bio, "Benjamin Domenech is publisher of The Federalist, a fellow at The Manhattan Institute, and editor of a daily email, The Transom, which aggregates news and notes from around the web."
He defended his wife against vicious tweets.
Shortly after her father's funeral someone created a doctored image of a gun pointed at Meghan McCain as she approached her father John McCain's casket. The original poster had written, "America, this ones for you," according to the Arizona Republic. Domenech quickly screen grabbed the image and tweeted in defense of his wife. "Hey @jack, this has been up for half a day. It has been reported 100+ times. No response. Tell me why this is cool by you," Domenech wrote in the now-deleted tweet.
Domenech later deleted that tweet when the account was suspended "so no one will have to see it." After the original tweet was deleted, he took to the social media site again "Twitter finally suspended this account this morning," Domenech posted. "No one should have to raise a ruckus or highlight this sort of thing publicly to get their attention."
McCain and Domenech got engaged shortly after her father was diagnosed with cancer.
Domenech popped the question in July 2017, although Meghan didn't announce the engagement until November. “You may have read something about me on the Internet last night. I’m engaged! … We’ve been together for years. We’ve been engaged for awhile and it’s a secret. I was hoping to get married and people wouldn't find out, but people talk sometimes,” she said. She then added, “We got engaged because we decided to sort of celebrate life and celebrate being alive. It’s not the most romantic story, but he is my partner.”
Ben stood by Meghan through hard times.
“We were already talking about getting married, but this made it official," Meghan confessed. "There was something about Ben being there for me, at my father’s treatments. I was like, ‘This is love.’ I felt this overwhelming sense of time and my own mortality. We ended up saying, ‘Let’s do this now.’”
They moved up their wedding for her father.
“We were originally going to elope before everything happened with my dad, but obviously all these things have taken on new meaning.” Domenech added, “This brought into focus how important it was for Meghan to have her dad see her get married, and to have that happen while he was still fully there and fully able to participate. This was something that she needed.”
Domenech was accused of plagiarism by The Washington Post.
In 2006, The NY Times reported that Domenech was working as a blogger for The Washington Post and resigned after being accused of plagiarizing multiple articles from others. Some of his posts appeared to be copied from the National Review Online, The New York Press and The Flat Hat, the student newspaper at the College of William and Mary, which Domenech attended. Initially, Domenech denied the allegations but issued an apology in a post on RedState.
But that's not all...
In 2013, Domenech dealt with another issue in his career. Buzzfeed reported Domenech allegedly took $36,000 from a lobbyist to write propaganda for the Malaysian government. Domenech was reportedly a subcontractor for a man named Joshua Trevino in the incidents that led to a federal filing. It was reported that Domenech “was retained by Josh’s Trevino Strategies and Media PR firm in 2010 with the general guidance to write about Malaysia, particularly the political scene there.”
Domenech explained, “I did not ever have anyone looking over my shoulder for what I wrote, and the guidance really was just to write about the political fray there and give my own opinion. Of course, Josh picked me knowing what my opinion was — I stand by what I wrote at the time and I continue to be critical of Anwar Ibrahim, who I think is a particularly dangerous fellow.”
RELATED: How Serious Is Glioblastoma? The Truth About John McCain's Type Of Brain Cancer
Molly Given is a writer with an entertainment/ celeb expertise living in Philadelphia. She is a lover of all things to do with mystery and magic in life. When she’s not writing her fingers off she can be found planning her next adventure in a new part of the world.