Lone conservative Meghan McCain to leave 'The View'; liberals rejoice
The token conservative co-host on ABC’s “The View” announced she will leave the show at the end of the month. While some celebrated her departure, others expressed how her voice will be missed.
“This is the show in America and it is not easy to leave, but I feel this is just the right decision for me at this moment,” co-host Meghan McCain, 36, said as she announced her departure on air this Thursday.
“I’m just eternally grateful to have had this opportunity here so, seriously, thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart,” McCain said as she thanked each of her co-hosts whom she regularly sparred with on-air over cultural and political issues.
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Meghan McCain announces her departure from @TheView at the end of the show’s season, saying “this was not an easy decision.”
— The View (@TheView) July 1, 2021
“I’m just eternally grateful to have had this opportunity here so, seriously, thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart.” https://t.co/bSM6CzSMi7pic.twitter.com/B27dtDsj73
Since she will continue to co-host until the end of July, McCain quipped to her co-hosts, “if you guys want to fight a little more, we have four more weeks.”
McCain, the daughter of the late U.S. Senator from Arizona and former Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, will finish the season. She cited the desire to stay in Washington, D.C. to be with her husband and young daughter.
"COVID has changed the world for all of us, and it changed the way — at least for me — the way I am looking at life, the way I'm living my life, the way I want my life to look like," McCain said. "When I said goodbye to all of you in the studio over a year-and-a-half ago, I had just found out I was pregnant. I left [New York City] very quickly because my OB-GYN wanted me to leave because he wasn't sure about how COVID could possibly impact pregnant women."
McCain joined the talk show in 2017 not long after Christian, conservative actress Candace Cameron Bure left the show.
Her departure leaves a vacant spot for a conservative voice at the table of liberal-leaning women co-hosts.
McCain’s announcement garnered a wide range of responses on social media due to her often combative approach as the lone conservative on the show.
Molly Jong-Fast, editor-at-large for The Daily Beast, tweeted about McCain’s departure: “May I suggest as her replacement….. anyone else.”
May I suggest as her replacement….. anyone else https://t.co/w5zPtOhfSC
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) July 1, 2021
Shannon Watts, the founder of the pro-gun-control advocacy group Moms Demand Action, tweeted, “It’s about time...” Watts argued that "McCain’s gun lobby talking points were dangerous disinformation."
Former Republican-turned-liberal activist David Weissman tweeted: “Meghan McCain is leaving #TheView, thank God.”
Meghan McCain is leaving #TheView, thank God.
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) July 1, 2021
“There are plenty of conservatives that doesn't spread propaganda lies that could give different points of view on The View,” Weissman continued.
He suggested former congressman Joe Walsh, Lincoln Project Senior Advisor Tara Setmayer, columnist Amanda Carpenter and Nicaraguan-American Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, who are each staunchly anti-Trump.
Pro-Israel group Stand With Us thanked McCain for standing against anti-Semitism during her time on the show.
Following @MeghanMcCain's announcement of her departure from @TheView:
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) July 2, 2021
We would like to thank her for standing with the Jewish people.
Meghan brought rising antisemitism into sharp focus & was an ally to beleaguered Jews when many others chose to be bystanders.
Thank you Meghan! pic.twitter.com/yMJeSjDMPU
“We would like to thank her for standing with the Jewish people,” Stand With Us tweeted on Friday. “Meghan brought rising antisemitism into sharp focus & was an ally to beleaguered Jews when many others chose to be bystanders.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a friend of McCain’s late father, tweeted that he is “100% certain that @MeghanMcCain best days lie ahead as a conservative commentator and thought-leader among her generation."
"Meghan is highly intelligent, feisty, patriotic and stands up for her causes," Graham wrote. "I wonder where she got that from?”
?????????? https://t.co/w95kGjCDjp
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 1, 2021
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey posted on social media that McCain "has done the conservative cause, her family and the State of Arizona proud!"
"@TheView will miss her and her audience will follow her," the governor wrote. "Looking forward to what’s next… Congratulations!"
Her co-hosts also offered supportive words and wished her the best after her announcement.
“When you leave here, you can take on anything because everything possible has been fired at you,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said.
Co-host Joy Behar said McCain has been a “formidable opponent” during their time on the show. Twitter users had a laugh over Behar's bemused reaction on-air when McCain made her announcement.
"You're no snowflake, missy," Behar said of McCain.
McCain is known for her conservative and anti-abortion views but is vocally supportive of LGBT rights. She is a critic of former President Donald Trump.
McCain made headlines recently for condemning President Joe Biden’s support of abortion as a Catholic, saying Biden is doing “grave spiritual harm to himself" and the country by supporting abortion as a Catholic.
McCain is a new mother of Liberty Sage McCain Domenech, her infant daughter born last year. She is the wife of conservative writer Ben Domenech, whom she married in November 2017.
McCain announced she was pregnant on the show in March 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
Emily Wood is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]
