Meghan McCain, Joy Behar spar over school reopenings: 'I don't think it's fair to say Republicans don't care about children'
It’s a heated episode of The View when Whoopi Goldberg threatens to take the show to a commercial break.
During Monday’s show, which returned following a weeklong hiatus, co-hosts Meghan McCain and Joy Behar got in a tense debate over the issue of schools reopening this fall as the coronavirus pandemic persists in the U.S.
“I am someone who is a proponent of children going back to schools,” McCain said, mentioning a recent CNN article on the collateral costs of kids staying home. “This is just unsustainable for a lot of working families, for single moms, for parents that work and they’re having to make these hard decisions between cutting their hours, making up the money that they’ve already lost from the pandemic and having childcare and having their kids go to school.”
However, McCain added that she is not remotely pleased with the federal government’s response to the issue, or as she sees it, lack thereof. She specifically criticized Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s Sunday interview on CNN, where DeVos was murky on reopening procedures for schools in coronavirus hot spots.
“Everyone from Betsy DeVos on down, Republicans, Democrats, as far as I’m concerned, vote everybody out on both sides,” McCain said. “Because I’m so sick of our paying our taxpayers dollars to come up with absolute jack, five months in for the children of America.”
Behar agreed on McCain’s dig at DeVos but saw the reopening debacle in more partisan terms.
“[Republicans have] been spending the last few decades defunding education,” Behar said. “And they think that we’re going to believe this baloney that they’re throwing at us now, that they care about our children? Give me a break.”
Just last week, President Trump threatened to defund schools that don’t fully reopen. But McCain took issue with Behar putting the blame on all Republicans.
In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2020
“I don’t think it’s fair to say Republicans don’t care about children. I think that’s very aggressive and incendiary,” McCain replied.
That led to a shouting match between McCain and Behar with the latter claiming she said they don’t care about “education” not “children.”
As the she-said/she-said cross-talk escalated, Goldberg played teacher and stepped in. “I swear to God if you don’t stop, I’m going to take us to break,” she said.
After the show, as tensions cooled, McCain tweeted how she lives “to spar” with Behar on the show. Behar replied, “We love it.”
I live to spar in a political debate and there's no stronger partner than @JoyVBehar, and nobody I'd rather trend on @Twitter with.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 13, 2020
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