After McCain Calls Out 'View' Bias, Whoopi Insists They 'Punch On Both Sides'

June 17th, 2020 2:41 PM

The View co-host Meghan McCain scolded her peers and the show she works for after the show opened Wednesday, attacking Republicans for coming up with their own police reform bill. As the liberal hosts whined that Senator Tim Scott’s “Justice Act” didn’t go far enough, McCain wondered why her co-hosts couldn’t be bipartisan and had to “crap all over Republicans” for trying to do something “noble.” Her criticism was met with denial by co-host Whoopi Goldberg, who laughably claimed the show took on, “everybody" and "both sides.”

After playing a clip of Senator Scott discussing the bill and his own experience being racially profiled, co-host Joy Behar singled him out for being the only black Republican Senator and for not agreeing that America is systematically racist:

Well, yes I was. Senator Scott who is the only African-American Senator in the GOP said that America is not a racist country. Then he goes on to talk about how he was pulled over by the police five or six times….The question is, there is systemic racism in the country contrary to what he says. 

Behar also lectured the lone black conservative justice on the Supreme Court about racism on yesterday’s show.

She went on to claim that because the bill didn’t address housing or employment discrimination, it didn’t go far enough. Sunny Hostin also downplayed President Trump’s police reform executive order he signed yesterday as another “photo op.”

But Meghan McCain was upset that her co-hosts wouldn’t give Republicans any credit (as if that’s really surprising). She called on them to stop “crapping all over Republicans” for trying to make some changes:

 

 

I think it's a good, noble start, this bill. I'm glad to see this swift sea change on bipartisan support of police reform. I'm really disheartened that we can't even come together to try and make changes, and I think some of the criticism you gave, Sunny, is valid, but how about we all continue to try to improve instead of just crapping all over Republicans, saying that they’re doing nothing or it's not good enough? This is a great, noble attempt by a senator on the Republican side, and I would like to see us put our differences aside.

Whoopi then read off cue cards a laundry list of demands that the bill allegedly didn’t include that “need to happen.” Sunny Hostin agreed, saying that there needed to be more “federal oversight” over all police departments. McCain acknowledged their complaints but reiterated her wish that the show could be more fair to Republicans:

I think my frustration is when I come into the show and I see a tease saying, ‘Are Republicans doing enough right now?’ After one of the most famous Republican senators is presenting a bill right now, there is no -- I think we are trying. My party is trying, and my show is teasing at the beginning, ‘Republicans aren't doing anything.’....

She added, “Please stop knocking Republicans this morning for some of us ‘not trying’.”

But Whoopi defended the show as being hard on both sides of the political aisle:

Tomorrow, it will be the -- it will be the Democrats. We punch everybody. We punch on both sides. You know that,” she reassured McCain.

This is just patently untrue as you can see from our archive. Whoopi's also admitted on the show that she won’t hold Democrats accountable.

The last time McCain brought up The View's bias, Whoopi shouted her down and told her to "stop talking."

Read a partial transcript, below:

The View

6/27/20

JOY BEHAR:It's not being addressed in these bills. These are like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I say stop blaming President Obama for everything. This is the Republican playbook right now. From 2010 to 2016, both houses of Congress were controlled by the GOP, okay? 

WHOOPI: Right. 

BEHAR: Remember what Mitch McConnell said, we're going to stop everything he does. So shut up about Obama already. 

WHOOPI: Right. So Meghan, what did you -- what were your feelings about the bill? Do you think it went far enough? 

MCCAIN: Yeah. First, I think there's a few things to hit here. The first one is when people say Tim Scott is the only black Senator on the Republican side, well Democrats only have two. You have Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. So Let's please stop pretending like there's great bipartisan representation in the Senate. It's despicable that there’s not more people of color on both sides in all races, it’s a huge problem in our representation but It's not singularly a Republican one. The second thing is Tim Scott also talked about in 2016 about how he has been targeted by Capital Police as a senator where they stopped him and then thought he was impersonating a Senator when he was trying to come in, which is also a heartbreaking story. So he is a man that has experienced racism, and by the way he was pulled over seven times in a year, not five. I think it's a good, noble start, this bill. I'm glad to see this swift sea change on bipartisan support of police reform. 

I'm really disheartened that we can't even come together to try and make changes, and I think some of the criticism you gave, Sunny, is valid, but how about we all continue to try to improve instead of just crapping all over Republicans, saying that they’re doing nothing or it's not good enough? This is a great, noble attempt by a senator on the Republican side, and I would like to see us put our differences aside. I know I'm exhausted and I think the country is exhausted, to try to really enact real reform right now, and this is the best opportunity as George Floyd's lawyer said yesterday on the show. This is the best time in history to do it, and I think we should all just come together, and please stop making this so partisan because I for one am truly exhausted with it. 

MCCAIN: Well, Sunny, I hear what you are saying, and I think it's 100% valid criticism. I think my frustration is when I come into the show and I see a tease saying, ‘Are Republicans doing enough right now?’ After one of the most famous Republican senators is presenting a bill right now, there is no -- I think we are trying. My party is trying, and my show is teasing at the beginning, ‘Republicans aren't doing anything.’ Yes, all this criticism, Whoopi, you and Sunny just said, 100% valid. The chokehold thing is a big deal. I don't understand why that's not in it either. That’s fine, let's continue the conversation. That's why bills have amendments on the floor, and that’s why this is a bipartisan process. But please stop knocking Republicans this morning for some of us ‘not trying’. This is a very intense awakening for the American public the past few weeks, and I think I just don't appreciate that tease coming into the show.

... 

WHOOPI: Tomorrow, it will be the -- it will be the Democrats. We punch everybody. We punch on both sides. You know that. 

MCCAIN: It’s not about you and Sunny its--