And now back to our regularly scheduled feuding on The View.
During Friday’s broadcast of the ABC talk show, conservative co-host Meghan McCain reignited her long-standing on-air battle with Joy Behar, accusing the liberal host of peddling “fake news” about the economy slowing down—despite the fact that there are, indeed, many signs the economy may be heading for a decline.
Spending the opening segment discussing the blockbuster revelations that U.S. diplomats engaged in a coordinated effort with President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Behar claimed there’s been “radio silence” from Republicans on the issue.
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McCain, however, objected to Behar’s characterization, reading off a list of GOP senators who have offered mild condemnations of the president’s actions—specifically when it comes to the president demanding to know the whistleblower’s identity.
“I knew you were going to say that,” McCain sneered at Behar. “That’s why I got the list.”
Later on in the segment, McCain became flustered when she wanted to discuss Trump calling on China to investigate the Bidens. Following McCain’s remarks on the China comments, Behar pointed out that they would be discussing this next segment and to hold her thoughts until then, prompting McCain to complain that she wasn’t aware it was coming up.
“I didn’t know we were doing it next,” she huffed. “Sorry! I’m sorry! It was in conjunction of what we were saying.”
Behar, meanwhile, noted that it was “alright” before pivoting to the economy, pointing out that the president’s base isn’t turning on him yet and the media needs to focus on economic concerns.
“The media needs to stop doing Trump 24/7 and start talking about the fact that the economy is really slowing down,” she stated. “Jobs are slowing down. The farmers are in trouble. Manufacturing is taking a dive.”
McCain, however, vehemently disagreed with Behar, claiming the “economy is not falling down” before insisting that her liberal counterpart’s warning about the economy is “part of the problem” for conservatives.
“Yeah, it is, the Dow dropped 800 points in two days,” Behar shot back. “Agriculture is taking a hit. The farmers are in trouble.”
“That’s fake news,” McCain sneered, using one of the president’s favorite attack lines. “That’s just fake news that the economy is slowing down. That’s just fake news. It’s part of the paradigm of why his base is still standing with him.”
McCain further asserted that if the economy was struggling Trump wouldn’t tweet about the jobs numbers on Friday morning.
The jobs numbers, meanwhile, were short of expectations and the manufacturing index is at its lowest point in more than a decade amid Trump’s trade wars. Furthermore, the service job sector hit its slowest growth in three years. This all comes on the heels of this summer’s recession panic over the yield-curve inversion, causing stocks to drop sharply and the Federal Reserve to cut rates twice in recent months.
