Meghan McCain trashes former co-stars on The View over 'undisciplined' JD Vance interview

Meghan McCain lashed out at her former co-stars on The View over their clamorous interview with US Vice President JD Vance.

The daughter of the late Senator John McCain was on the series from 2017 until 2021, serving as the token conservative on an otherwise liberal panel.

She clashed bitterly with her co-hosts over politics on the air, and after her departure she denounced the show in her memoir as a 'toxic work environment.'

Four of her fellow panelists from that time - Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines - remain on the program to this day.

When Vance appeared on the show this Tuesday, he faced a torrent of fierce questions about topics like his relationship with Donald Trump, the Epstein Files, inflation and accusations the administration is 'racist.'

McCain, 40, reacted by fuming on X: 'My biggest takeaway from Vance on The View is honestly how s***ty and undisciplined the hosts STILL ARE. After all these years they still get basics facts wrong, flub easy questions and can’t get through a segment without yelling at each other. Vance handled it all very well.'

Vance's tense back-and-forth on The View came 11 months after McCain conducted a far friendlier interview with his wife Usha on her podcast Citizen McCain.

The Second Lady announced on McCain's show that she was expecting her fourth baby, and the two women bonded over motherhood.

Although John McCain - a Republican from Arizona - carried on a rancorous feud with Trump, his daughter emerged as The View's sole representative of American conservatism during the first Trump presidency.

As a result, she became the lightning rod of the panel, barreling into vociferous political debates with her co-hosts that occasionally turned personal.

Once, having just returned from maternity leave, McCain joked to Behar: 'You missed me so much, Joy,' and Behar snapped: 'I did not miss you. Zero.'

McCain wrote in her memoir that she sobbed during the commercial break after Behar's jibe, and once the episode was over, she both cried and vomited.

On Tuesday's episode of The View, Vance, 41, batted back a barrage of tough queries while in town to plug his book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.

Within minutes of Vance sitting down, anti-Trump panelist Ana Navarro promptly pushed back on the vice president's claim that the administration has 'made good progress' on lowering inflation. 

'[Trump] said he loved inflation,' Navarro said, to which Vance calmly replied, 'What he said is he loves inflation is going to come down when this war is over.'  

The rest of the conversation carried a similar tone, with the hosts repeatedly attempting to poke holes in Vance's logic.

The politician remained diplomatic for the duration, despite being flanked from both sides.

Co-host Sunny Hostin had specifically asked why Vance was 'rebuffed' by federal officials after he suggested last summer that Tucker Carlson interview Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in an effort to clear Trump's name, according to a new report.

'I would say first of all, don't believe everything that you read in any newspaper whether it's a right leaning paper or left leaning,' Vance disclaimed, before billing himself as 'frankly kind of a conspiracy theorist on the Epstein stuff.'

'I think that it's crazy that you have this guy who is clearly a sex predator who is hanging out with a lot of wealthy and powerful people - that bothered me. I don't know what's there. Nobody knows exactly what happened unless you were there.'

'I wanted to have full transparency. What I disagree with is the idea the White House wasn’t committed to full transparency,' Vance said.

He went on to remind viewers that while he 'disagree[d]' with certain White House decisions when it came to the case, one of the major revelations from releases thus far 'is that Epstein hated Donald Trump.

'Donald Trump literally reported Jeffrey Epstein to the police. That's one of the things that came out of the files,' Vance explained.

He was immediately met with pushback from Joy Behar, who insisted 'They were best friends for a decade.'

Navarro claimed Trump and Epstein's relationship only fell apart over a 'real estate deal.'

Hostin also grilled the conservative about the holdup in releasing the remaining 2.5 million pages of DOJ records related to feds' investigation into the financier.

Vance responded by pointing out how remaining records were either duplicates or subject to court-ordered limitations.

'I would need to actually know exactly what you're talking about,' he told Hostin at a point, after asking for - and not receiving - specifics.  

Moderator Whoopi Goldberg quickly called for a break. 

When the broadcast returned, Behar immediately seized on Vance as he began fielding a question from Sara Haines.  

Haines had asked how Vance's conversion from Protestantism to Catholicism in 2019 affected his political views - specifically how he went from calling Trump 'America's Hitler' in a 2016 text message to a friend to 'America's best hope.'

'What happened?' Behar blurted out.

'Well, Joy - little humility, actually,' an affable Vance answered. 'I think when you make predictions and those turn out to be false, you have to ask yourself, what made me wrong about that? What did I not understand or appreciate?'

As he explained how he came to this growth, Haines and Behar began speaking over him.

'Let me finish. Let me just finish,' he said in a soft tone. 

He added: 'There's a certain point where you say, "I made predictions about this. I ended up being wrong. In politics and anything, I think it's important to say, you know what? I got things wrong. I was wrong about him. He was a very successful president.

The hosts responded by bringing up Trump's purported lack of humility, before spending several minutes panning the president's approach to immigration. 

'You have thrown a lot at me. We have 30 seconds left here,' Vance noted as Goldberg desperately tried to cut off her co-hosts and go to a pre-scheduled commercial.

'You are the vice president. You can go long,' said Navarro.

Vance insisted that 'We have to strike a balance between enforcing laws' on suspected illegal immigrants while not 'dehumaniz[ing] people.'

An unsatisfied Hostin still asked two follow-ups.

After the commercial, Goldberg took charge, outright asking 'What did black people do to this administration that has allowed it to really stigmatize folks of color? You know how hard it is.'

The question was a reference to the Trump administration's efforts to remove certain structures or sites important to black history, as well as the dismantling of majority-black voting districts. 

'You have folks of color in your family,' Goldberg noted, referring to Vance’s wife, Usha, who is Indian American.

'Sure,' Vance said. 

'When you see things - them doing all kinds of removal of information of black heroes, how do you - how does that sit with you?'

A visibly confused Vance replied: 'What exactly are you talking about?'

Goldberg, tripping over her words at points, explained: 'They are taking down the actual history that happened in this country.

'Slavery happened. All kinds of stuff happened. It seems that it has been very easy for this administration to remove that and also to denigrate black folks who have worked their behinds off to get this American dream.'

Hostin stepped in to say: 'We’re talking about black history erased. Black voter districts dismantled. Black leaders are sidelined from our ranks. Where do Americans of color fit in this vision? It doesn’t seem like we fit.'

Vance answered: 'I think everybody is welcome in our political coalition, even if you didn’t vote for us.

'Everybody is welcome in our country so long as you are an American citizen.'

When Vance cited declining violent crime rates in Washington, DC - where black people comprise nearly half the population - Goldberg shot back: This is not about crime. This is about human rights.'

Hostin maintained: 'Black history has been erased.'

'That is not right,' Vance said, before yet another break.

The rest of the appearance spanned only a few minutes, with Vance given the time to plug the book and field softer questions about his personal life.

The book - a 304-page memoir billed as 'a spiritual exploration of what it means to be a Christian in all the seasons of life' - hit shelves on Tuesday.