As Meghan McCain Pleads for Peace, Look Who Goes After Republicans

Conservative co-host Meghan McCain of “The View” took her media peers to task on Thursday for their rhetoric after suspicious packages containing crude bombs were sent to CNN’s New York City bureau and prominent Democrats.

Mainstream media types — particularly those at CNN — were quick to pin the blame on President Donald Trump and his fiery words about fake news and media bias.

“I’ve been doing so much soul-searching in my life in so many different ways right now,” said McCain (pictured above right) in her extended commentary. She added, “I really try to come into work thinking about what rhetoric I’m going to put out in the world and what my father would have done if he was still here,” referring to the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

“Last year on this show, I said, ‘I hate Hillary Clinton,’ and I called her ‘Crooked Hillary.’ And it is one of the things I regret doing because I contributed on television,” McCain continued.

“Now, this is not saying that I agree with her. But ‘hate’ is not a word that should be coming out of my mouth on television about someone of a different political persuasion.”

McCain added, “I need to hold myself to the same standard that I would like to hold the president, and I implore everyone else in media because I think we should cop to our mistakes, and I’m damn sure going to continue doing what my father did. I thought, ‘What have I done to contribute to the polarization in this country?’ And that is one thing that I can own that I did and I regret.”

Prominent Democrats such as former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former CIA Director John Brennan, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) all were sent suspicious packages this week.

The package addressed to Brennan was sent to the Time Warner Center in Manhattan, which prompted CNN’s New York bureau, housed in the building, to be evacuated.

Although little is known as of yet about the perpetrator or perpetrators, it didn’t take long for the mainstream media to blame Trump for much of the bitterly partisan political climate.

Liberal “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin (above left) said Wednesday, “I’ve been texting with my former colleagues at CNN, and they’re scared. And one colleague — former colleague — said, ‘This is what happens when the president calls you the enemy of the people.'”

On Thursday, Hostin rebuked Trump for continuing with his pre-planned rally on the same day the packages were intercepted.

“You know, I was disappointed in what I saw at the rally because it seemed like whoever writes his speeches wrote what he should say, which was, ‘We need to unify,’ but I wish he would have taken the moment to really, truly, be presidential — not at a rally for him but to all Americans,” Hostin said. “He had the opportunity to be really presidential and I don’t think he was.”

Trump — in addition to denouncing the bomb threats and political violence — said that “as a part of a larger national effort to bridge our divides and bring people together, the media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and the constant negative and oftentimes false attacks. That has to go.”

After McCain called on her media peers to hold themselves to “the same standard” as they hold Trump, Hostin admitted, “It takes a big person to say what you just said.”

“It takes a person of great character to do that,” Hostin added — then continued to implicate Trump. “I, unfortunately, don’t know if this president has that kind of character.”

Conservative co-host Abby Huntsman said, “Sadly, I’m not so surprised that this happened because the rhetoric has been so out-of-hand and this country has been so divided.”

But McCain insisted the media do their own soul-searching, adding, “For me, I say this almost every morning: ‘I can’t give in to hate.’ It’s too great a burden to bear. I have to stick with love.”

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“I think us in the media, as people who host a show that people watch on politics, we also have to hold ourselves to a standard,” McCain added.

That’s when liberal co-host Joy Behar chimed in: “I feel like we’re losing something, you know? That this event that happened feels like we’re losing the country. We’re losing things.”

“And I was thinking the other side believes that, too,” Behar continued before bashing conservatives. “They believe that they’re losing maybe white privilege, let’s say, or that immigrants are going to take over. And I feel like we’re losing abortion rights … [Trump’s] going after the gay community.”

“Free speech, which is something that I value tremendously because of my job — the press — we could lose all of that,” Behar added. “So it’s not about love. It’s really about trying to understand what are people believing that they’re going to lose and how much is [Trump] contributing to that loss.”

McCain would not let liberal leaders off the hook.

Said Joy Behar, “It’s incumbent upon Republicans” to “start to speak out” against Trump. “They stayed silent and they are the perpetrators also.”

“I would implore my friends on the Left to do the same thing in those, because I don’t always see that from leadership on the Left, as well,” McCain insisted.

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg emphasized “the bottom line” is “the bomb doesn’t care what your beliefs are. The bomb goes off, it blows up conservatives and Republicans and Democrats and nobody should be sent bombs because that’s not the answer.”

But Behar let Democrats off the hook. She said, “It’s incumbent upon Republicans” to “start to speak out” against Trump. “They stayed silent and they are the perpetrators also.”

Watch more of the segment below: