Whoopi Goldberg on fight with Meghan McCain: ‘Sometimes it goes off the rails’

The hosts of “The View” took time Tuesday to address the heated exchange between co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Meghan McCain earlier this week.

The panel argued Monday about lawmakers’ treatment of the impeachment process. As McCain, Goldberg and co-host Sunny Hostin all spoke at the same time, McCain asked, “Do you want to hear a conservative perspective on the show ever?” and Goldberg retorted “Girl, please stop talking” in a now-viral moment.

But the hosts agreed with Goldberg Tuesday that “things get heated” on the show and that sometimes the hosts are “not as polite as we could be.”   

“That’s just the way it is, but you’re going to be dealing with the same thing when you sit around your table with your family and you don’t agree, or somebody says something and it goes off the rails. This is part of what we do,” Goldberg said Tuesday.

The movie star rebuked the notion that the hosts do not get along, or that their identities as women affected their conversation. 

“This is not an indication that women can’t sit around and talk. This is not an indication that we don’t know how to deal with each other on camera. This is happening in real time. Stuff happens on this show in real time, and everybody, wherever you sit in all of this — don’t assume that we’re over here with butcher knives under the table” she added. 

.@WhoopiGoldberg and @MeghanMcCain address heated comments on Monday’s show: “We’re really passionate — this is our jobs,” Goldberg says. “Sometimes it goes off the rails — and it does.”
“We fight like we’re family — it’s all good,” McCain adds. https://t.co/f8u2wc159S pic.twitter.com/3CNUbWgiuV

— The View (@TheView) December 17, 2019

McCain assured the audience that “Whoopi and I get along great,” telling her co-host, “I love you very much.”

“I’ve loved you for a long time,” McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), added. “You were good friends with my dad. We fight like we’re family. It’s all good. We’re not tearing the set apart. Calm down, all of you, OK? It’s all good.”

The co-host also agreed with Goldberg that the show can set an example for people who may disagree politically with family and for other political news coverage that includes voices on both sides of the aisle.

“I think it is a lens into what’s happening politically in the country, and you and I spoke this morning, and I think America’s at very heated levels right now, and I don‘t love it. I don’t think anyone at home loves it, anyone in the country, but it is representative of what’s happening in the country,” McCain said.  

“It is raw and real, and we are all passionate women. I’m hyper, hyper-conservative. Everybody else at the table is not, and sometimes we’re going to clash heads, but I think it is indicative of what the holidays are like for a lot of people, but we also came together and we’re fine and everything’s good.”  

The hosts criticized media coverage of the initial segment, with both McCain and Goldberg alleging that the language used this week to describe the moment was sexist. Goldberg specifically cited some critics calling the hosts “you girls” and “you ladies.”

“It’s like, wait a minute, we’re actual human beings having conversations that you don’t want to have. We’re having the conversations you can’t have, you’re scared of having, whatever it is, but the bottom line is, yeah, it’s going to happen. And it’s probably going to happen again,” Goldberg said Tuesday.