Meghan McCain Says The View Hosts Would 'Demonize' Her, But She Still Has Respect For One Of Them

screenshot the view meghan mccain
(Image credit: ABC)

Meghan McCain has not shied away from talking about her time on The View or sharing her opinions about the good, bad and ugly that she witnessed and experienced on the hit ABC daytime talk show. Admittedly there’s a lot more of the bad and ugly coming out of her stories, as following her exit from the show in July 2021, she called it a “toxic work environment” and said she felt “isolated” as the only conservative voice on the show. There is one bright spot, however, and despite being demonized by other people, one current co-host still has McCain’s utmost respect. 

Sunny Hostin, who joined The View in 2016, a year before Meghan McCain came on full time, still keeps in touch with her former co-worker, and in fact McCain had only glowing things to say about Hostin when she spoke on the Reality with The King podcast: 

She's the only cast member I still have a relationship with, for whatever that’s worth… I have such love for her and I respect her, and do we talk every day? No. But if she were walking into the kitchen right now, I would hug her and want to talk to her for, like, a few hours. She's a really good person and she didn't demonize me the way a lot of other people did, for whatever that's worth.

Meghan McCain had some memorable on-air spats, particularly with Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar. In late 2019, a clip from The View went viral when Goldberg snapped at McCain to “stop talking right now” during a conversation about Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings. An equally cringe-worthy moment happened in early 2021 when McCain’s return from maternity leave was marred by a spat with Behar, who told McCain, “I did not miss you.” It got so bad that ABC News President Kim Godwin intervened, saying the attacks had become personal, rather than sticking to the topics at hand.

Those kinds of issues didn’t linger between Sunny Hostin and the oldest daughter of the late Sen. John McCain. In fact, Meghan McCain called her former colleague “one of the greatest TV presences in all of television,” and said she thinks Hostin should host her own show. Of all the people McCain worked with, she said Hostin was the most politically savvy:

I don’t know why MSNBC isn’t trying to poach her for, like, Rachel Maddow’s slot. That’s how good I think she is. She’s by far the most politically savvy person on that show, at least when I worked there, and I love that about her. And [she's] extremely curious in a way I didn’t find anyone else that I worked with, like curious just about different aspects of politics. And I, too, found that politicians that came on always wanted to definitely have a question with me and her.

That’s definitely some high praise, and it’s nice that the former co-host was able to salvage at least one good relationship from her four years on the popular ABC show. Back in February, Meghan McCain weighed in another The View controversy, in which Whoopi Goldberg was suspended after making controversial comments about the Holocaust. She said she wasn’t calling for Goldberg to be fired, but she wanted to point out the double standard that existed when it came to the show’s liberal and conservative-leaning pundits.

New episodes of The View currently air on ABC on weekdays at 11 a.m. ET, and past episodes are available for streaming with your Hulu subscription.

Heidi Venable
Content Producer

Heidi Venable is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend, a mom of two and a hard-core '90s kid. She started freelancing for CinemaBlend in 2020 and officially came on board in 2021. Her job entails writing news stories and TV reactions from some of her favorite prime-time shows like Grey's Anatomy and The Bachelor. She graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a degree in Journalism and worked in the newspaper industry for almost two decades in multiple roles including Sports Editor, Page Designer and Online Editor. Unprovoked, will quote Friends in any situation. Thrives on New Orleans Saints football, The West Wing and taco trucks.