Meghan McCain said that Tucker Carlson should not be blamed for the anonymous writings of his former staff member, while her fellow co-hosts said he is “just as guilty” for the racist remarks.
McCain accused her fellow co-hosts of harshly condemning Carlson for the behavior of one of his staff members because they want him to be “canceled” from his Fox News show because they disagree with his political leanings during Tuesday’s episode of The View.
“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 because the New York Times put out an op-ed about six months ago saying that it was basically dangerous to have a conservative woman with this kind of platform on this show. So, I am against cancel culture,” she said.
“And 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. … When we’re thinking about cancel culture, it just makes me sad that there seems to be a — we’re at a moment in time where there’s just not a place for people to come together and have civil, and sometimes a little uncivil, debates, but I’m fine with that, and I just really worry about the direction we’re going in culturally when we’re all going to get completely siloed in our corners, and we’re not going to have debates,” she continued. “Because, quite frankly, I like debating with all three of you.”
Host Joy Behar said that Carlson was “just as guilty” as his writer who resigned after his anonymous social media account, which included racist and sexist comments, was uncovered. Whoopi Goldberg agreed and said that debates are good to have but that racists and those tied to people who have made racist remarks shouldn’t be included in the conversation.
“The writer is known for his racist writings,” Goldberg said. “I don’t want to hear that when I want to go listen to Tucker Carlson talk about what’s wrong with the Left. I don’t want to hear about it being challenging to me as a person of color because you don’t like my color. Tell me what you don’t like about my politics. Leave my color out of it, and that’s what I want. And that’s what I want Tucker Carlson to do. And when he doesn’t — and 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.”
McCain asked if her fellow co-hosts wanted Carlson removed from Fox News. Sunny Hostin said that she wants “accountability” from Fox News based on Carlson’s own remarks.
“It’s not about what the writer has done, Meghan. It’s about what he has done. … I certainly think he should be held accountable for what he has said,” Hostin said.
McCain argued that Carlson is not responsible for his staff member’s behavior.
“I don’t hold him accountable for his writer’s actions in the same way that I don’t hold any person accountable for someone they are attached to’s actions. I think, again, his writer 100% should have been fired. What he wrote was abhorrent, hands down, full stop. But your criticism of his writer has turned on to a criticism of him,” McCain said.
