ABC’s The View has had alternating Republican co-hosts since Meghan McCain left the show in August but is struggling to find a permanent Republican co-host, reports Politico. It’s been nearly six months, but finding someone who meets the show’s standards for an acceptable permanent Republican host has failed.
According to Politico, “Sources close to the show said that the search has stalled as executives struggle to find a conservative cast member who checks all the right boxes.”
What are those boxes, you ask? “They will not consider a Republican who is a denier of the 2020 election results, embraced the January 6 riots, or is seen as flirting too heavily with fringe conspiracy theories or the MAGA wing of the GOP. But at the same time, the host must have credibility with mainstream Republicans, many of whom still support DONALD TRUMP.”
Donald Trump’s approval ratings amongst Republicans are still very high, meaning that limiting potential hosts to anti-Trump Republicans makes finding a possible Republican replacement difficult enough. But is the show’s problem really about finding a Republican who’s palatable to the far-left hosts? What does not “flirting too heavily with fringe conspiracies” mean? None of the show’s co-hosts can honestly claim an aversion to conspiracies. For example, conspiracy theories like the suggestion that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election or the notion that Trump was undermining the United States Postal Service in 2020 were heavily promoted on the show.
In 2017, Whoopi Goldberg even claimed that Antifa violence was a false flag started by conservatives. “This to me — Antifa is one of those things, I don’t want to say the right, but somebody came up with as a catchphrase so that you could say there’s violence on the other side. I don’t remember violent demonstrations before the gentleman who’s in now came in,” Goldberg said. “People kept saying on television — particularly on the other networks. Well, this group. I kept saying who is this group? Because when you see how stuff is organized, you can say that’s who we are, we’re fighting for this. Oftentimes I found that sometimes the side that is kvetching the loudest has sort of orchestrated this so they can bitch about it. I’m not sure who was storming through the streets. I’m not sure who was storming through the streets.”
So is this really about The View’s high standards for a palatable Republican, especially given the bottom of the barrel they scraped for their current lineup of liberal hosts? Frankly, it’s hard to believe that the show has any standards at all.
Perhaps the real issue isn’t that they can’t find the right anti-Trump Republican. When Meghan McCain left the show this summer despite still being under contract, despite meeting the criteria of an acceptable Republican for the show, she cited the toxic work environment as her reason for leaving. After returning to the show following maternity leave, she joked about how much her co-hosts must have missed her, and co-host Joy Behar snapped, “I did not miss you,” triggering McCain’s postpartum anxiety. McCain says she cried during the commercial break and had a panic attack after the show finished filming, causing her to vomit in a trash can in her office. She never got an apology. McCain had been a co-host on the show since 2017, but Behar didn’t see her as anything but an enemy.
If a Republican who meets The View’s standards can’t even be treated with dignity and respect, so much so that she quit the show before her contract ended, why would anyone want to put themselves through that?
