Meghan McCain Slams “Defund the Police” on ‘The View’: “The Stupidest Thing I Ever Heard”

As the 2022 midterm elections draw closer, the ladies of The View have started picking apart campaign rhetoric on both sides of the aisle. And on today’s episode of the talk show, co-host Meghan McCain tore into “defund the police,” saying that she believes anyone who uses the slogan is going to lose their election.

While discussing midterm elections strategies and the recent spike of violent crime across the country, the co-hosts said that safety may be a top concern when it comes to voting next year. As Republican hopefuls lean into law and order, McCain claimed they’ll have an edge over their Democratic challengers.

“There’s a really interesting Washington Post article that’s out this morning talking about this — talking about how Democratic strategists are very concerned about how effective the terminology ‘defund the police’ has been when it comes to voting and voting in primaries,” McCain began. “We just saw this in New York with the win with Eric Adams, who is a former police chief who ran on law and order in New York City.”

Perhaps of note, Adams has yet to officially win the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York, though he is the presumptive nominee.

McCain went on to slam progressive candidates, saying their calls to defund the police led to their downfall in the last general election. “The hyper-progressive candidates that ran on things like defunding the police in the general elections, and running for president against President Biden, they didn’t get anywhere,” McCain argued.

The co-host also spoke about the media and Twitter’s effects on campaign strategy: “I think it’s important for Republicans to understand that Democrats kowtowed to a Twitter audience a lot of times,” McCain said. “They kowtowed to people in the media. And it has been shown that, statistically, if Twitter were a voting block, it would be the second most liberal voting block in the Congressional District in the United States.”

Circling back to the original point of violent crime, McCain railed against “defund the police,” arguing that the divisive term actually aided Republican campaign strategy.

“So, the biggest gift Republicans have ever been given is the term ‘defund the police,'” McCain argued. “And let’s make it very clear, Republicans didn’t come up with that. I thought it was the stupidest thing I ever heard when I first heard it being used.”

Concluding her argument, McCain blasted longtime foe Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, stating that the general public should be afraid of violent crime as they make their voting decisions.

“There is a huge homicide crisis in the country,” McCain said. “Whether or not AOC likes it, it’s okay for people to be afraid of a homicide. I think that’s going to be very effective going into midterms.”

Though the rest of the women did not get a chance to respond before the show was sent to break, Joy Behar noted that “The other things that [Republicans] are harping on sound like race-baiting to me.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC. Watch the full discussion from morning’s show in the video above.

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