Meghan McCain defended President Donald Trump’s voters Monday, kicking off her return to ABC’s “The View” by saying that media needed to be more respectful of them.
McCain blamed the media in part, saying that the disrespect that was often shown to Trump voters was part of the reason that the 2020 presidential election was closer than many thought it might have been. (RELATED: ‘Everyone Hates You’: Meghan McCain Flames Bill De Blasio Over ‘Private Party’ In Times Square)
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McCain, who had just returned to the show from maternity leave, jumped into the conversation after cohost Sunny Hostin referred to Trump’s efforts to contest the election results as a “coup.”
“I think that rhetoric is dangerous,” McCain said. “I think saying we’re going to have martial law and it’s a coup — I’m here in D.C. They’re setting up for the inauguration right now. There’s not going to be martial law, and things like that just scare people.”
“Joy, to your point, ‘who are these people?'” McCain continued. “Who are these people are 70 million Americans that voted for Trump. Biden won, but he didn’t win by any kind of the landslide that I, for one, thought he might have.”
Behar protested, saying, “But he won.”
McCain agreed, saying that she believed the election had been fair — but she added one caveat: “I’m just saying the rhetoric and the media needs to be more respectful of people — of Trump voters and I think that’s how we got to this place to begin with, and going forward in 2021, we need to be respectful of the 70 million Americans that for whatever reason did not feel that they could in good faith, pull the trigger for President Biden and Vice President Harris.”
Behar pushed back, arguing that a lot of the people who voted for Trump had probably gotten their information from places that were not “legitimate sources.”
The cohosts began talking over each other in response, and McCain said that many of the people she knew had voted for Trump had done so quietly because they did not want to be “shamed” or to be called “racists.” (RELATED: ‘I Was Completely Radicalized’: Meghan McCain Says Kavanaugh Hearings ‘Changed The Game’)
Behar continued to argue that the election had not actually been close, saying that Biden had won by eight million votes.
“President Biden won or President-Elect Biden won in all these ways, but we are a completely fractured country, and to write off, I don’t know who these people are that voted for Trump,” McCain pressed again, saying once more that 70 million Americans had voted to re-elect President Trump.
Behar then claimed that a lot of the people who voted for Trump had “been lied to,” but McCain wasn’t so sure.
“That’s your perspective. It’s the perspective of Joy Behar and, you know, you’re a proud progressive leftist, but I am a proud conservative, and I think the idea that the only reason why people voted for President Trump in the last election is because they were lied to and they’re morons who were just being fed information is not only disrespectful —”
“I didn’t say they were morons,” Behar protested.
“It’s inaccurate,” McCain concluded.