Friday, The View’s Hot Topics table, devolved into a shouting match between Republican hosts Meghan McCain and Tara Setmayer. The Never Trump, CNN commentator was a fill-in host for the day, and used the opportunity to air her grievances against Republicans who supported the President as part of a “cult.” McCain took issue with Setmayer’s rhetoric and the two sparred, as some of the liberal hosts chimed in to support Setmayer.
Host Joy Behar led the segment by explaining Trump’s visit to the UK and his recorded interview with the British tabloid The Sun, where he derided Prime Minister Theresa May for not taking his advice on Brexit. The View then played a tape from this morning’s press conference overseas, where President Trump accused the paper of not including everything he said about May, deriding the media’s version as “fake news.”
Noting The Sun was owned by Fox News’ CEO Rupert Murdoch, Behar gushed, “So now he’s saying his own words are ‘fake news.’...Who is left for his supporters to believe?”
Setmayer was ready to fit in at the mostly liberal table. “Him, him! It's a cult that way!” she gushed. Meghan McCain was irritated and let her know it.
“Please stop saying that--You said that last time you were here,” McCain sighed.
“ I won't stop saying that,” Setmayer shot back. “I stand by it. It's not everyone. But there's a large group of people who blindly follow what this man says that don’t think for themselves. When he can actually get away with saying things on tape and talk about the things as if they're fake news now. That is a cult. That is a cult!” she gushed as the audience applauded.
Behar turned to McCain, wondering if she was so upset because she was a Trump supporter. “Are you a Trump supporter? I never heard that,” she asked, puzzled.
“I defend his supporters because I understand it. Like I said yesterday with the book I asked everyone to read. I think when you're putting a giant swath of people that everybody has been brainwashed and in a cult--” she started to say.
“I stand by it,” Setmayer reiterated. McCain had enough and tried to call out Setmayer for not being true to her conservative principles.
“Okay. As a conservative, you're mad at what is happening on the Supreme Court and the two Supreme Court choices?” she asked bluntly.
Setmayer claimed that supporting President Trump wasn’t worth the long-standing effects Supreme Court justices have on the country. “I don't think it's worth it. Undermining government institutions, norms, and ideals, to have someone like this, who’s dishonest and unfit to be President, is worth it. I don't. I don't!” she gushed as the audience cheered her on again.
“I so enjoy this -- It's Republican on Republican crime!” Joy Behar chuckled.
McCain replied that Setmayer was “ignoring” what was going on in the conservative movement to make such a statement. “He has 89% of Republican support. So 89% of the Republican party are in a cult?” she asked, shocked.
Setmayer wouldn’t back down from her harsh criticism. “The one who is are -- the ones who are willing to speak out and criticize him when he deserves it, okay, fine. There's a large group, including a lot of members of Congress who have completely sold their principles down the river. They're hypocrites. Hypocrites!" she said.
Sunny Hostin chimed in to help Setmayer. “Because they want to stay in power,” she offered.
“Yes! it's true,” Setmayer gushed. Hostin followed up with, “Do you think its worth staying in power?”
“I don’t think it is!” Setmayer touted, appealing to her lifelong devotion to conservatism and distress that it was being ruined by Trump. Even Hostin was confused as to why Setmayer still identified as a Republican.
“Would you leave the Republican party over this? Why haven’t you left the party?” she asked point blank.
McCain had enough of the hyperbole and repeated Hostin’s question.
“Why haven't you left the party yet? If we're all so awful?” she snapped.
Setmayer said she still believed in the principles just not the messengers.
Host Sara Haines stepped in to support Setmayer. “There's a divide we have seen over and over with Republicans. A lot of people have conservative ideals that say, at what point am I giving up my humanity for this?” she gushed.
“For power!” Hostin added amidst the applause.
As the audience applauded again, McCain became irate, as the hosts talked over each other.
Behar threatened she was going to cut to commercial if they didn’t talk in turn. McCain berated the table for not trying to understand the people who voted for Trump and have “compassion” for them, instead of sitting at their “studio in Manhattan and judging the middle of the country.”
Haines took umbrage at that, pointing out that she came from middle America and her parents were Trump supporters.
“My point was, there is a divide. Not all conservatives agree with Trump. Sadly they have to give up on things they did care about, like Supreme Court justices and other things because he's undermined the party,” she lectured.
The rest of the hosts continued ignoring what McCain said.
“Are they complicit?” Hostin asked Haines. Setmayer cut in.
“By not holding him accountable, they are complicit,” she responded, adding that “We could’ve had a sane Republican. We didn't need Donald Trump to do it.” before being cut off by a frustrated Meghan McCain.
“Jeb Bush had $100 million and he still couldn’t pull this off because the messaging was off!” she gushed. Behar said she had to wrap it up and they cut to commercial.
