The cast of daytime talk show The View recently got into a shouting match while discussing a recent on-air explanation by Tucker Carlson of a wildly inappropriate series of stories published online by one of his show's former staffers, Blake Neff. Neff resigned from the show after the stories came to the public's attention.
Carlson's statement glossed over what Neff had actually done, and attempted to shift the blame onto people acting "self-righteous." Meghan McCain defended Carlson's sentiments, saying that she disagreed with "cancel culture."
McCain went on to expound the virtues of civil debates, and talked about how sad "cancel culture makes her, saying:
"When we're thinking about cancel culture it makes me sad there seems to be...we're in a moment in time where there's not a place for people to come together and have civil debates. I worry about that time when we're all going to be siloed in our corners. I like debating with you guys."
Whoopi Goldberg agreed that debates are a good thing, but that racism is not okay—in reference to Tucker Carlson's frequent talking points on his show, adding:
"Debating is great. What you want to stay away from is you want to get away from the racist aspect of it. The racist aspect of it is thrown out there to keep you from making your points."
McCain mistakenly thought that Goldberg was referring to The View with her comment, and took offense.
"Well, I don't think there's any racist aspect of having to do with this show."
Goldberg then clarified that she was referring to Carlson's show and Neff's writings.
"The writer is known for his racist writings. I don't want to hear that when I want to go listen to Tucker Carlson talk about what's wrong with the Left. I don't want to hear about it being challenging to me as a person of color because you don't like my color."
"Tell me what you don't like about my politics. Leave my color out of it. That's what I want Tucker Carlson to do. When he doesn't—there's plenty to show he's one that has spoken the words almost directly as this boy has written them, I have a problem with that."
McCain then questioned whether Carlson should be held to account for his staffer's actions. Co-host Sunny Hostin then stepped in to explain that it isn't his staffer's racism that Carlson should be held accountable for.
"Tucker Carlson has a long history of making racially insensitive comments, of making culturally insensitive comments. He said White supremacy was a hoax. He said that Black Lives Matter wasn't about Black lives at all. He also has a history of making these kinds of comments. I think what was most surprising to me is that he sort of tried to change the narrative and said that people were thumping their chests in glee over the destruction of a man."
"Well, what about accountability? What about responsibility? You know, this is a person who took it upon himself—Blake Neff—to make these horrific vile comments. I urge our viewers to look them up. They're so horrific and vile. He chose to do that himself. These are long-standing comments over years."
"The fact that his career was destroyed is of his own doing. The fact that he is now being held accountable for it, again, is his own doing. For Tucker Carlson to try to blame-shift here I think is really despicable. I wonder about this long-planned vacation. He seems to take a lot of long-planned vacations when it gets hot in the kitchen for Tucker Carlson."
You can watch the whole discussion for yourself below:
Whether Carlson should be held accountable for his writer's actions or not is up for debate, but he most certainly is accountable for his own.
