Meghan McCain let loose on cohost Sara Haines during Friday’s broadcast of “The View,” challenging Haines’ defense of President Joe Biden’s border policy thus far.
Haines argued that immigration was a complex problem that would require more than 54 days to solve, but McCain said that Biden should be held to account for continuing to use the same type of detention facilities that Democrats had attacked former President Donald Trump for using.
WATCH:
Haines began the segment by noting that while it was certainly easy to be critical of immigration policies, solving such a complex problem was likely to take time.
Blaming former President Donald Trump for politicizing the situation, Haines added, “The former president ran with ‘build a wall.’ There was a lot of — it was kind of laced with dog whistles and xenophobia and racism and otherism, and so it became kind of a tainted topic. The most basic role of government is to have a working border. So I think most Americans could agree that we need to fix the system, but right now even sensible policy, if it gears too close to anything Trump did, it’s ruined because it now is compared to the motivations behind it, like, what are we trying to do?”
Haines went on to say that Biden was dealing with the border situation in conjunction with other issues — not the least of which was a pandemic. “There’s a lot of work to be done here. So I think we need to give them more than 54 days,” she said.
“In the first 100 days no deportations, he removed the Remain in Mexico policy, and I’m sorry, the idea that — give the guy a break while kids are being held in jail-like facilities? The American public are not stupid people,” McCain pushed back.
“I would rather them be held than being released back into countries where —” Haines protested, talking over McCain.
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay with them being held in jail-like facilities,” McCain replied.
“No one is okay with that. Stop it,” cohost Joy Behar lashed out at McCain.
“But what Sara’s saying is just not factually accurate,” McCain argued.
“It is accurate — it is accurate that no Republicans — no Republican spoke about it for four years, and now all of a sudden, they’re horrified by it,” Behar insisted.
“Lindsey Graham, who you hate more than anyone, is one of the biggest proponents of immigration reform and has been championing that for decades. It wasn’t all Trumpism, and I think the idea — again, by the way, the Deporter-in-Chief was President Obama. I can’t — the idea that everything is just different in the first whatever days that President Biden —” McCain continued.
“Not a word from Republicans for four years,” Behar spoke over McCain, waving her hands in the air.
“It’s not intellectually honest,” McCain finished.
“Let me do some talking —” cohost Ana Navarro attempted to jump in, but everyone began talking at once.
“All right. Cut the mics,” Behar said then.
“I need to talk some facts about what is happening there,” Navarro pressed. “This government is working so hard to make sure that those kids have representation. They’re working with local organizations. They are holding them for 102 hours, not 102 days like Trump.”
“We don’t any have time to continue this right now,” Behar wrapped the segment. “Take it outside.”