Meghan McCain Skewers Dems for Insisting Manchin 'Bend the Knee to the Squad' and AOC

Meghan McCain has a message for Democrats: if you, come for Sen. Joe Manchin, be prepared to lose West Virginia. On Monday morning, the conservative co-host insisted that Democrats are treating Manchin, who has refused to kill the filibuster, the same way that Republicans treat their own Trump-defying members, and she warned that it will only spell disaster for the party. "Do Democrats have to bend the knee to the Squad and everything on the far left?" asked McCain. "It looks like AOC and the Squad are dictating who's allowed in your party, as well."

Over the weekend, Joe Manchin made headlines when he published an op-ed explaining why he's breaking rank and voting against the For the People Act, a Democrat-backed federal bill that would expand voting rights across the country. When it came time to discuss Manchin's stance, the co-hosts divided along familiar lines, with Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Whoopi Goldberg coming out against the West Virginia senator, and Meghan McCain and Sara Haines speaking out in support of him.

While Haines insisted that Manchin has to represent his "purple, if not red" state and its constituents, McCain used the Hot Topic as an opportunity to come out against (who else?) "the Squad" and their progressive values. "The Democrats would seem to rather have a Republican in the Senate in Joe Manchin's seat than have any moderates," said the conservative co-host. "There's so many conversations about whether or not Republicans have to bend the knee to Trump. Well, do Democrats have to bend the knee to the Squad and everything on the far left?"

McCain added that Manchin is incredibly popular in West Virginia, "the state that went the highest voting for Trump in the entire union" in 2016. "Maybe Democrats can learn something about winning red states, but instead of taking the lessons of Joe Manchin, they'd rather call him a heretic and call him a traitor," she said. "President Biden didn't run as a progressive. He didn't run as someone who's going to be on the hard, hard left. If that's what the party wanted ... we would have an Elizabeth Warren for president. But that's not what the Democratic coalition wants."

WILL MANCHIN’S MOVES LEAD TO BIPARTISANSHIP? The co-hosts react to West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin saying he’ll vote with Republicans to kill the voting rights bill as well as save the filibuster. https://t.co/RzEhDSiGqo pic.twitter.com/hEKTXAKqII

— The View (@TheView) June 7, 2021

"If you're going to continue down this path, where anyone who thinks differently than them is bloodletted out and seen as a heretic," concluded McCain, "You're going to have the same problem on your side that I'm having on mine."

Elsewhere on The View... The co-hosts completely lost it while discussing former President Trump's bizarre, potentially-backwards pants at the North Carolina Republican Convention this weekend. "I'm not like a Jim Acosta where I'm always dunking on him," said McCain. "If he's really looking to lead the party, this is not how he should present himself, for a lot of different reasons."

When Behar said that "this guy is running around in pants that look like he pooped in them," McCain balked, noting that the show's standards team told them that they "weren't supposed to say that." Of course, Behar replied that she wasn't there for that conversation, and then continued.

"The point is, the guy stole so much money from his constituents when he continues to say that he won the election — he has no one he can go to to get some better pants?!" asked Behar, sending her co-hosts spiraling. "And where's Melania? She's not not ironing them anymore? I mean, come on. And backwards — where's the fly? I don't understand this."

Sigh, of course The View is talking about Trump's pants today.

Joy Behar: "On Fox News, they talk about how Joe Biden is suffering from dementia. Hello, Joe Biden is riding his bike and leading the country quite well. This guy is wearing pants that look like he pooped in them!" pic.twitter.com/RZu5widMis

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 7, 2021

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Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.