The co-hosts of The View spent this morning reflecting on the past year since the murder of George Floyd, sharing the successes of the activism and protests that followed and the work that still lies ahead following the guilty verdict of former police officer Derek Chauvin. Meghan McCain told her co-hosts that she’s seen a shift not only globally, but within her own perspective in the past year. “It’s been a complete paradigm shift in the way people view these issues,” McCain said, before admitting her own “extreme shift” in how she views police brutality.
“I have done a lot of work since the summer and a lot of reading and processing and speaking to people who know more about these issues than I do,” McCain said. “And I know just my personal perspective on it has done an extreme shift. If you would have asked me, ‘Is police brutality a huge problem in America?’ before George Floyd, I probably would have said yes. And now, I would say absolutely, yes.”
Admitting she holds different political views from her co-hosts as the lone conservative on The View, McCain said there “is no doubt” in her mind about the seriousness of police brutality in America. “I want to continue — as Condoleezza Rice says, who is one of my icons — taking my own responsibility and culpability in what I have done to to contribute to make America a racist country and to help make it less of a racist country,” McCain said.
For conservatives who “don’t really understand the issue or don’t want to hear the issue as much,” McCain recommended they read Rice’s op-ed from last summer, which she published in the Washington Post following Floyd’s murder.
“I hope this is okay for me to reveal,” McCain prefaced her next point, before launching into an anecdote about a brunch she attended with friends. When the subject of racial inequality came up, McCain said she told her friends, “‘Look, if my co-hosts and I want to go shopping and to lunch after the show, it will be a different experience for Whoopi and Sunny than it would be for me.’ Full stop, hands down. Racism is still a big problem in this country.”
In response to McCain’s comments, Whoopi Goldberg acknowledged the importance of recognizing the deep-seated racism in America. “Hearing you say, ‘I’ve taken a look and and I see that there are issues here,’ you know, if people just cop to the fact that it’s not in our minds — this has been going on for us since we got to this country.”
She added, “The mere fact that people are hearing, people have seen themselves treated this way … this is happening to us as human beings. So when we say this, it’s important that everybody just go, ‘Oh damn. Damn, yeah, I get it. I hear what you’re saying.’ That’s all people really need.”
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC. Watch this morning’s segment in the video above.
