Quite a while has passed since Meghan McCain announced she’d be leaving The View after four years as co-host, which was soon followed by many reports of behind-the-scenes turmoil, with McCain calling out her former colleagues for bullying behavior and more. Yet to see her latest comments about the long-running ABC daytime series for Ana Navarro’s “influence-peddle” comments, one might think the feuding was still as fresh as daisies.
Ana Navarro's Initial Comments
On the December 14 edition of The View, the panel was in the midst of a discussion about the impeachment inquiry that was authorized regarding President Joe Biden, and Navarro shared the following assertion:
Joe Biden’s crime is being Hunter Biden’s father. Look, did Hunter Biden influence-peddle on his last name? Yes, he did. So did half of Washington. People sitting at this table did it.
Navarro didn't specifically name anyone when referring to the act of using more powerful people's names to boost one's own cred, and theoretically could have been referring to a host of women who sat at that table at one time or another in the past 26 years, from Rosie O'Donnell to Elisabeth Hasselbeck to Raven-Symoné to Jenny McCarthy and so on.
It's definitely a lengthy list. But Meghan McCain doesn't seem to believe that Navarro was talking about anyone else.
How Meghan McCain Responded
Before all that much time had passed following that segment on The View, Meghan McCain took to X to defend herself and call out Ana Navarro's comments for not being authentic.
I don’t understand why my former colleagues @TheView @ABC bring me up and slander me on an almost weekly basis. It has been years - move on, I have. I have never been accused of a crime in my life and am a patriotic American - I would never and have never 'influenced peddled' in my life, let alone with foreign adversaries. Not all politicians children are the same - and I am no Hunter Biden.
The daughter of the late former U.S. Senator John McCain claimed to not be guilty of latching onto others' names for her own benefit with global enemies, and shared her not-exactly-glowing feelings about being compared to the POTUS' son.
McCain, who took a gig writing for Daily Mail after her stint on The View, then hinted that she may be looking to take this issue to court for possible libel, saying:
All accusations are absurd, defamatory and slanderous. I will be consulting my lawyers regarding what was libeled against me on The View this morning.
The fact that no one said Meghan McCain's name out loud, and without any visual connections, will probably make it difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ana Navarro had anyone specific in mind when speaking her mind. But that's for lawyers and judges to decide.
For what it's worth, Meghan McCain has spoken in the past about Sunny Hostin being the one View host she still respects, so would she have jumped to conclusions so quickly had Hostin been the one to make the inciting comments? Hard to say. But there's clearly still a lot of foul feelings bubbling beneath the surface on both sides of the stage.
The View airs weekday mornings on ABC, and can be streamed the next day with a Hulu subscription.
