Meghan McCain said goodbye to The View on Friday after co-hosting the show with Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, and Sara Haines for four years. McCain, who relocated to Washington D.C. during the pandemic, said that she was leaving because her life was no longer compatible with the job. She announced her plans to leave during a July 1 episode, saying, “This was not an easy decision. It took a lot of thought and counsel and prayer and talking to my family and my close friends." During her final episode on Aug. 6, McCain took the opportunity to thank her The View co-hosts and offer a surprising apology. Read on to find out who the departing host apologized to and why.
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McCain's last episode included some special guests.
s_bukley / ShutterstockMcCain’s farewell episode included appearances from McCain's friend, Arizona’s Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and a taped message from former House Speaker Paul Ryan. McCain was also surprised by an appearance from her mother, Cindy McCain. Cindy shared that her family lovingly referred to Meghan as “John McCain in a dress” when she was growing up.
“So we knew she could do it, and we knew she had the ability to make waves or deal with controversy, all the things that you do so well on this show,” Cindy said.
McCain's late father, Sen. John McCain, encouraged his daughter to do the show.
Rena Schild / ShutterstockWhen McCain announced earlier this summer that she'd be leaving The View, her co-hosts reminisced about how her late father, Sen. John McCain, asked them to look out for his daughter.
“I didn't want to join the show, as I think I've talked about in the past, and it was my dad who encouraged me to do it," Meghan said. "He said I could never give up an opportunity to work on such an iconic show and to work with Whoopi Goldberg, and he was right. It was one of the last things he told me to do before he died."
Sunny Hostin said that John, who died in 2018, “told [her] to take it easy on Meghan—that [she] would learn to love her and understand her, and that she would be a pain in the a**." She added, "And he was right about all of those things."
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McCain was at the center of many controversies on the show.
ABC/YouTubeAs the show's conservative host, McCain was known for being the dissenting voice in many conversations. She also received plenty of media and audience criticism for some beliefs expressed on the show.
Early in the pandemic, McCain said she had no problem with former President Donald Trump and others in the Republican party referring to COVID-19 as the "China virus." McCain later apologized for parroting anti-Asian-American rhetoric. "I condemn the reprehensible violence and vitriol that has been targeted toward the Asian-American community. There is no doubt Donald Trump's racist rhetoric fueled many of these attacks, and I apologize for any past comments that aided that agenda," she tweeted in March.
In early June, Goldberg and McCain got into a heated yelling match over comments McCain made comparing President Joe Biden to Trump. Goldberg and McCain later apologized to one another on-air.
McCain was also frequently at loggerheads with comedienne Joy Behar. And when she announced that she was leaving, some viewers noted that Behar seemed to be smiling about the news. However, her co-host later went on to praise McCain.
"I have to say that what we have in common—as do all of us here—is that we're on a show where we stick our necks out, we take the blowback," Behar said during the July 1 episode. "We take a lot of hits on this show, and we stick to our points of view. You have done that brilliantly for four years."
"You're no snowflake, missy," Behar continued.
McCain apologized to one crew member in particular in her farewell address.
The View / YouTube"On a professional note, this show has been one of the greatest, most exhilarating, wonderful privileges of my entire life," McCain said during her final episode.
“Thank you all so much again for the privilege and honor it has been for the past four years to work on this show,” she said. “It really has been incredible. It will be referenced in everything I do for the rest of my life. You women have been incredible to work with. The crew, the producers, everyone works so hard.”
“This has been a really wild ride the past four years of my life,” she continued. “It’s been honestly the best of times and the worst of times in all ways on and off the show. It’s been a really incredible, liberating experience, and I will always cherish the time I spent with all of you.”
McCain then shared some special words for the show's executive producer Brian Teta, who joined the show in 2015 and became EP in 2017. McCain said that she hoped he could forgive her "for making his blood pressure rise for the past four years as much as [she] probably [had]."
As for Teta, he seems to harbor no hard feelings. He retweeted the video of McCain's remarks and wished her well. "Congrats to @MeghanMcCain for an incredible 4 years on @TheView! Not wrong about my blood pressure," he wrote, adding a crying-laughing emoji. "We’ll be cheering you on in your next adventure!"
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