On “The View” Monday, Meghan McCain, one of the lone right-leaning voices on the show, condemned the response of her fellow co-hosts to a “bombshell” report by ABC News’ Brian Ross that turned out to be “fake news.”
After Joy Behar apologized for the now widely-mocked celebration, video of which the show proudly tweeted out before deleting, McCain was given the floor — and she didn’t hold back.
“When it happened in real time, I think everyone watching the show could see my discomfort at the room erupting like the Dodgers just won the World Series,” said McCain. “I think holding people to both standards — I remember when Obama was in office Rush Limbaugh saying I want my president to fail. I think when we’re talking about something so egregious, it’s going to tear our country apart. There is no reason to be celebrating, cheering whatsoever.”
“I went to a Christmas party this weekend. It is no secret most of my friends are in conservative media. I feel like I’m an astronaut trying to explain both worlds to each other,” she continued.
“As long as your oxygen doesn’t run out, you’re good,” Ana Navarro interjected jokingly.
McCain continued, dropping the word that’s come back to haunt the mainstream media after it tried to use it to discredit Donald Trump’s massive upset victory.
“Fake news and what we did on Friday, that’s what I was accused of being a part of,” she said. “I don’t want to sit on a show where I feel like we’re giving fake news or acting irresponsibly. Because the cut and short of it is — by the way, I think this is far from over — we should take the information we have and take it in time and explain it to people. Having one piece of information that ended up being fake news, in my opinion, doesn’t mean that an impeachment trial will start this evening.”
Both Behar and Navarro took exception to McCain’s use of the dreaded “fake news” label, Behar asking McCain if she believes Ross “deliberately” misled the public.
“I don’t think it was deliberate, but I think it was fake news,” McCain replied.
“But that is what fake news means,” countered Behar, but McCain dismissed the distinction.
“The Dow dropped 350 points after it happened,” said McCain. “There are real-life ramifications.”
Navarro also warned against the misuse of the term, saying, “We’ve got to be very careful and very thoughtful about the difference between fake news, real news [and] real journalism.”
As examples, Navarro noted two examples that happened to be right-leaning: “To me, fake news is when you make up a story about the Clintons running a sex ring out of the basement of a pizza shop that does not have a basement. Or when you make up a horrible conspiracy story and never even regret it or apologize for it about the death of Seth Rich.”
WATCH:
Partial transcript via HuffPost.