Meghan McCain fought tooth-and-nail Wednesday as her “View” co-hosts pointed to clear evidence that President Donald Trump had committed an impeachable offense when he made promises to the president of Ukraine.
Panelists of the popular daytime show skimmed a newly released summary of Trump’s phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked the foreign government to find dirt on the son of his political rival Joe Biden. Co-host and former prosecutor Sunny Hostin said the transcript showed Trump was in clear violation of campaign finance law.
“If asking for help from a foreign entity, for something of value to help him get elected in a campaign (isn’t) a violation of campaign finance law, I don’t know what is,” said Hostin. “It’s clearly illegal.”
McCain was doubtful, however, and questioned the possibility of impeachment.
“We’re in agreement it’s unethical and bad, and it’s unprecedented,” she began. “The question I have for you is, so we’re going to impeach. It gets through Congress; you actually think [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell is going to continue and pass this in the Senate?”
Hostin re-emphasized that Trump’s actions were impeachable, but agreed it was unlikely the Republican-controlled Senate would actually vote to convict him.
“I think it will unite this country when Americans, like during Watergate, watch what this president has been up to lining his own pockets for the good of himself,” Hostin added.
Co-host Abby Huntsman chimed in on the matter, arguing that the “optics” for Biden “aren’t good,” alluding to how Trump’s actions in the phone call with Zelensky draw attention to the roles the former vice president and his son Hunter Biden played in what the right wing claims is the father-son duo’s own Ukraine scandal.
“Optics are not illegal,” panelist Joy Behar shot back.
Hostin then pointed to the end of the Trump phone call when he “predicted” Ukraine’s economy would get “better and better” once Zelensky reached out and connected with Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Guiliani and U.S. Attorney General William Barr to investigate Biden.
McCain still wasn’t convinced, turning and asking her co-hosts, “Again, is it unconstitutional? Saying so on ‘The View’ doesn’t make it true!”
The Constitution defines impeachable offenses as “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Panelists Behar, Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg insisted the president’s act did indeed violate the U.S. Constitution. That’s when Huntsman asked why weren’t Dems voting to impeach Trump now if his actions were so egregious.
“Because it’s a process,” Goldberg explained, adding: “You have to go through all the steps.”
Hostin agreed, and broke things down even further: “This is the United States of America, there has to be a process. Congress has to vote on the impeachable offenses. There has to be a hearing on those. If they vote to impeach, it goes to the Senate and two-thirds of the Senate has to convict.”
A defiant McCain, who stormed off the set days earlier, argued against giving the American people the false impression that Trump “is just going to get pulled out of the White House in handcuffs.”
The conservative commentator earlier had addressed her on-air walk out with Bravo host Andy Cohen. Appearing on a Tuesday edition of “Watch What Happens Live,” the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain compared the drama she experiences with her “View” co-hosts to ‘The Real Housewives.”
“The View can be like the Housewives,” she said.
McCain, 34, exited stage left Friday after a heated exchange with guest host Ana Navarro, who checked the Fox News alum for getting loud with her.
“I just want to say, the walking off footage — we are told by producers to leave the table if it’s too heated, and I get touched up backstage with my makeup,” she explained. “So that’s what I was doing and I’ve done that many times over the years.”
