"I’ve never cared about being loved": Meghan McCain on not getting along with liberal "View" hosts

Meghan McCain is once again opening up about her tenure as co-host on “The View,” this time in a Tuesday episode of the conservative variety program "Ruthless Podcast." McCain sat down with podcast hosts Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook along with journalist Mary Katharine Ham to dish on the daytime talk show and her former co-workers.

The television personality, columnist and author served as a co-host on “The View” from 2017 to 2021. She is one of the only co-hosts to leave on her own — without being fired — in the gab fest's history. In her latest memoir “Bad Republican,” McCain revealed that she had been “unhappy” at the show for a long time and described its environment as “toxic.”

In her podcast appearance, McCain said she was cast as “the enemy” because the entire show is “leftists,” including those working in hair and makeup. “Maybe it’s different if you’re someone who wants to placate the show and be popular and be loved,” she said. “I’ve never cared about being loved, for better or for worse.”

McCain continued, saying her former co-hosts all “hate conservatives and men,” both on and off camera. She said she felt like she was “punished” for wanting to represent conservatives and give them a voice, especially in the wake of Trump’s presidency and the pandemic.

“I am told that it’s all utopian, beautiful, they all get along and there’s never any problems. I was the drama, I was the problem, the whole thing,” McCain said of "The View" dynamic. “Maybe that’s true. I don’t know. But for me, I don’t want to be friends with people I don’t respect. It’s too hard.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, McCain claimed the show never wanted to showcase “any real conservatives.” Strong and tough conservative women, McCain added, are also treated “like traitors to women” by the media.

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