Former “The View” co-host Meghan McCain appeared on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” Wednesday night to promote her new audio memoir, “Bad Republican.” In the book, she says she left the hit ABC show because she was bullied out, but on Andy Cohen’s program, she said she still talks to former colleagues and has “respect” for Whoopi Goldberg.
A viewer asked McCain about the rumors that ABC staffers have been told not to communicate with her and the conservative commentator replied, “If it’s true, like, they’re doing a terrible job because my hair and makeup people work at ‘The View’ — or one of them does, now — and I use their stylists still and I still talk to a lot of the hosts, including Sunny.”
Cohen then asked if she thinks she will speak to Goldberg or Joy Behar again after it was revealed that she cited the co-hosts’ behavior toward her as a contributing factor to the “hostility” that drove her from the program.
McCain said she has “nothing but respect” for Goldberg and believes her comments about her in “Bad Republican” were blown out of proportion. Cohen noted that she does say “a lot of kind things about Whoopi in the book.”
“I adore Whoopi and I love her. I think things went off the rails. I was trying to give, like, context to my experience leaving. I adore Whoopi. She’s an American icon. I have more love for her than anything else. I just wanted to explain myself and the things that happened,” she replied, adding that “The View” is “a great platform” and she’s “not a hater.”
Fox News got an exclusive first listen to “Bad Republican” and reported Tuesday that in it, McCain says the Goldberg and Behar displayed a “toxic, direct and purposeful hostility” toward her, growing “meaner and less forgiving” as former president Donald Trump’s administration went on, “as if I had become an avatar for everything they hated about the president.”
She added that their behavior was compounded by the fact that they’d seen, firsthand, how Trump attacked McCain and her family, notably going after late Sen. John McCain while he was alive and after his death.
McCain said Goldberg displayed “open disdain” for her, which was not good for her job: “Once she turns on you, it can create unfathomable tension at the table.”
McCain left the show in August and has since become a columnist for the Daily Mail Online.
Following the reports on the book’s contents, a spokesperson for ABC told TheWrap, “For 25 years, ‘The View’ has been a platform on air and behind the scenes for strong women. Live television and different perspectives can often lead to surprising moments, but the team is collaborative and supportive — focused on delivering an informative daily talk show to our loyal viewers.” ”