Whoopi Goldberg assumed that Meghan McCain might want to take a pass on talking about the resignation of Tucker Carlson’s top writer because she used to work for Fox News. She was wrong.
“I’m happy to speak on this,” McCain said, setting herself up for a rant against “cancel culture.”
“I think about cancel culture a lot,” she said. “I think every person who’s in mainstream media that has a platform, probably at one time or another thinks about it. Every woman on this show, at one point or another, cancel culture has tried to remove one of us from this show, for one reason or another. And by some miracle we’re all still here. And I think the greatest miracle is still me somehow being here.” She pointed to a New York Times op-ed about The View’s “Meghan McCain problem” as evidence.
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“I am against cancel culture,” McCain continued. “I think one of the reasons why I’m always a proponent of Tucker Carlson is because I believe in diversity of opinion. I believe in the reason why Fox News exists, because that kind of opinion doesn’t exist on any other network.”
But she was able to separate Carlson from his writer Blake Neff, who was fired for what Fox News itself described as “horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior.”
After taking a moment to mention that her latest fight with co-host Joy Behar was trending on Twitter the day before, McCain said, “The View is the last place this happens in mainstream media.”
And yet while McCain was extolling the virtues of civilized “debate,” her co-hosts were quick to remind her that this was a discussion about blatant racism and bigotry.
“Debating is great,” Goldberg said. “What you want to stay away from is you want to get away from the racist aspect of it. And the racist aspect of it is thrown out there to keep you from making your points.” When McCain said she doesn’t believe there’s “any racist aspect” of The View, Goldberg added, “No, I’m talking about people like Tucker Carlson.”
But it really set off the rest of the group when McCain declared, “I don’t hold him accountable for his writer’s actions,” adding, “your criticism of his writer has turned into a criticism of him.”
At this point, all three co-hosts jumped in with their objections, pointing out how often that racism has materialized on Carlson’s Fox News show. “Tell me what you don’t like about my politics, leave my color out of it!” Goldberg shot back. “There’s plenty to show he’s one that has spoken the words almost directly as this boy has written them. I have a little problem with that.”
“It’s not about cancellation, it’s about accountability!” Sunny Hostin added when McCain asked if Carlson should be taken off the air because of his writer’s actions. “It’s not about what his writer has done, Meghan, it’s about what he has done. I certainly think he should be held accountable for what he has said. He’s called white supremacy a hoax, he has said that Black Lives Matter is not about black lives, he’s talking about ‘dirty immigrants,’ he’s said all of these things!”
Instead of defending those ideas from Carlson, McCain simply pivoted to complain that Joy Reid, who just landed a new show on MSNBC, has not been “held accountable” for her past statements.
“Are we talking about Joy Reid or are we talking about Tucker Carlson?” Hostin asked.
When Goldberg cut to a commercial break, McCain was still talking.
