The View’s Meghan McCain, who fashions herself as a political and foreign policy expert, called for Russia to be booted from the G7 over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imprisonment of a political dissident on Wednesday.
There’s only one problem: the group of influential nations kicked Russia out seven years ago.
With President Joe Biden holding his first summit with Putin amid rising tensions between the two nations, McCain was asked at the top of Wednesday’s broadcast of The View whether or not she was happy to see the president have a conversation with the Russian leader.
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“No. I don’t think that we should be meeting with Putin at all,” the conservative co-host reacted before demanding action against Russia.
“I think that Russia should be kicked out of the G7 especially, especially while Alexei Navalny is sitting in a Russian prison simply for seeking democracy in Russia,” McCain confidently declared.
She went on to criticize Biden and other past presidents for not being tough enough with Russia, saying the last president who had done “anything to stop the expansion” of Russia’s influence was Ronald Reagan.
“At the same time, there are really egregious human rights violations going on in the country,” she added. “They should not be treated the same as the rest of Europe and the western democracies are.”
The fact is, however, that Russia is currently not in the G7—specifically because the powerful group of industrialized nations wanted to punish Putin for the forceful annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Russia had initially been added to the group in 1998, transforming it to the G8 at the time.
“International law prohibits the acquisition of part or all of another state’s territory through coercion or force,” the Obama administration said in a statement about Russia’s expulsion in 2014. “To do so violates the principles upon which the international system is built. We condemn the illegal referendum held in Crimea in violation of Ukraine’s constitution.”
Moments later, McCain’s colleague and frequent sparring partner Joy Behar relished the opportunity to correct McCain live on-air.
“Well, since I’m not an expert on Russian international information, but I do know one thing and that is that Putin was kicked out of the G8 which is why it is now the G7. He is not in the G7 at this point,” Behar boasted.
“That’s correct. That was my mistake. Sorry. That was my mistake, Joy,” McCain conceded before seemingly blaming the faux pas on her being “very sick.”
“I apologize. You’re right,” she added.
“That’s fine,” Behar responded. “Happy to correct you!”
