Meghan McCain Denounces Public Confrontation With Tucker Carlson on ‘The View’: “Incredibly Rude”

Meghan McCain may be fine with going head-to-head on The View, but that doesn’t mean she wants to see that happen anywhere else. On today’s episode of the ABC talk show, the co-host slammed a recent confrontation involving a private citizen and Tucker Carlson in a fishing store, disagreeing with the other ladies who deemed the spat justifiable.

During Hot Topics, a viral video featuring Carlson was brought to the table. In the clip, Montana local resident Dan Bailey confronts the Fox News anchor while shopping for bait. “You are the worst human being known to mankind. I want you to know that,” Bailey said to Carlson, who had little in the form of a response.

After fellow co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin said the confrontation was rather polite and somewhat justified, anchor Whoopi Goldberg tossed the question over to McCain — who had quite a different opinion.

“I know you’ve experienced this too, Whoopi, because you’ve experienced something similar when we were working together on this show,” McCain began on a personal note. “I won’t say what happened, but you had an incident where people were coming up to you and we were all scared.”

But McCain quickly left the vague reference to Goldberg’s confrontation by the wayside. After rattling off a slightly incorrect quote from Winston Churchill — “Just because the crocodile is eating them doesn’t mean it’s not going to eat you next” was McCain’s version of “An appeaser is the one who feeds the crocodile, hoping it will eat him last” — she jumped into her reservations.

“As incendiary as many people find Tucker Carlson, they find the women on this show equally incendiary for different reasons. If it’s okay and should be expected, maybe there’s an expectation that wherever we go, it’s okay for people to come up to us and scream things and say things.”

As if the passive-aggressive quarreling about their own safety wasn’t enough, McCain then tore into her co-hosts, saying they were wrong to call Bailey “polite.”

“Maybe you guys thought that guy was being polite,” McCain said. “I thought he was being a total jackass and incredibly rude.”

McCain then referenced the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise, saying that these confrontations are not only rude, but can turn violent when they’re with the wrong people.

“There are people that just aren’t in control of themselves, people aren’t in control of their mental health,” she said. “They want to take out their aggression on public figures. It’s incredibly dangerous.”

McCain sunk one final dig into her View co-hosts, suggesting they take a look at their own safety before claiming the confrontation was passable.

“I think it’s a very, very slippery slope,” McCain said. “I know how much people don’t like Tucker Carlson. People equally don’t like Meghan McCain and Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin and Whoopi and Sara. When you’re putting your opinion out there, you’re making yourself a target.”

The co-host then got personal, sharing that she and her husband now have to “talk about what restaurants” and “neighborhoods” they feel “comfortable” at with their infant daughter. She then shared a bit of empathy for Tucker Carlson’s wife, who once had to barricade herself from protesters.

“This isn’t normal. I think any rationalization that this is normal or should be accepted in the United States of America is not only indecent, but it’s beyond the pale of any expectation of any kind of decorum in a society like the United States of America,” McCain concluded. “Anyone who tries to rationalize it is gross. That man should apologize to Tucker Carlson.”

Before sending the talk show to commercial, Goldberg had a bit of a response to McCain’s vague references of her own public confrontations.

“I’m used to being spoken to in odd ways by different people. I just try to be as calm as I can,” Goldberg said with a chuckle. “Maybe if we all stop encouraging people to go out and yell at folks in public, maybe we can sort of dial it back a bit. I think that might be better for all of us, but what am I? Just a talking head, just a talking head.”

Watch the full segment in the clip above. The View airs weekdays on ABC at 11/10c.

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