Meghan McCain, Laid-Off Workers, and a Long Line of People With Something to Say About James Charles
The Spirit Airlines rant pulled reactions from well outside the beauty community. A former co-host of The View weighed in. So did the people James Charles told to get jobs.
A clip appearing to show James Charles in an expletive-filled confrontation with a Spirit Airlines worker began circulating in early May 2026, drawing a wave of public responses that reached far beyond his usual subscriber base. The reactions, documented across multiple outlets between May 10 and May 14, came from a McCain, a UK student publication, and a collection of unemployed people who took the remarks personally.
On May 10, AOL.com covered remarks by Meghan McCain, who according to the piece called Charles "cruel" in response to the rant. McCain, a former co-host of ABC's The Viewdoes not typically weigh in on beauty influencer controversies. The fact that she did was noted in the coverage as a sign of how far the clip had traveled beyond its original context.
Four days later, on May 14, The Tab published a piece responding to Charles' widely reported advice to a laid-off woman, which witnesses and clip archives characterized as a directive to "get a job." Rather than another commentator's take, The Tab assembled responses from people who said they were actively job-searching at the time. According to the piece, multiple individuals described the remark as dismissive of circumstances outside their control, including hiring freezes, mass layoffs in specific industries, and the general condition of the 2026 job market. For the record, none of those individuals were named in the signal as public figures or content creators. They were, by the piece's framing, the audience Charles was addressing.
The two pieces together cover a notable geographic and demographic spread. McCain represents a mainstream political commentary lane. The Tab's respondents represent the demographic the original comment was directed at. Neither outlet is a beauty or gaming vertical. The rant had, by mid-May, become a general-public story rather than a YouTube one.
Charles issued what his team characterized as a second public apology on June 9, alongside an announcement of a new, unspecified initiative. The apology's substance has not been detailed in available coverage.
What happens next
The nature of the "new initiative" announced alongside the June 9 apology has not been disclosed in any sourced coverage reviewed for this piece. Whether McCain's remarks prompted any direct response from Charles or his team is not documented. The Tab piece does not indicate whether any of the workers quoted attempted to contact Charles directly.
