Meghan McCain Announces She's Leaving The View After Four Seasons

The View's Meghan McCain era has come to an end. At the beginning of Thursday's show, McCain confirmed reports that she will be leaving The View after four contentious seasons as the show's resident conservative voice. McCain explained that, despite her frequent on-air clashes with Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, she's leaving because she does not want to return to New York City after relocating to Washington, D.C. during the pandemic. "This show is one of the, hands down, greatest, most exhilarating, wonderful privileges of my entire life," she said. "You are the most talented women on all of television."

"I'm just going to rip the Band-aid off," said McCain, as Goldberg gave her the floor at the top of Thursday's broadcast. "This will be my last season here at The View. I'll be here until the end of July to finish out the season with all of you, which I'm grateful for." She explained that "this was not an easy decision," as "COVID has changed the world for all of us," and the pandemic, combined with becoming a mother in September 2020, have changed her perspective.

When the pandemic first hit, McCain explained, she and her husband, The Federalist co-founder Ben Domenech, returned to Washington, D.C., and they've grown comfortable with their new life. "We have this incredible life here. We're surrounded by my family, his family, by friends, by this incredible support unit," said McCain. "When I think about where I want Liberty to have her first steps and her first words — I just have this really wonderful life here that, ultimately, I felt like I didn't want to leave."

"It is a privilege to work alongside such strong, brilliant, incredible broadcasters like the four of you," added McCain. "It has been so incredible to be able to do this with you."

.@MeghanMcCain announces her departure from @TheView at the end of the show’s season, saying “this was not an easy decision.”

“I’m just eternally grateful to have had this opportunity here so, seriously, thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart.” https://t.co/ZiP1UTs2xu pic.twitter.com/eLuEAJ4KLT

— The View (@TheView) July 1, 2021

McCain then told a familiar story about how her father, the late Sen. John McCain convinced her to join The View in 2017 and encouraged her to take any opportunity that would allow her to work with Whoopi Goldberg. "He was right," she said. "This is the show in America. And it is not easy to leave, but I feel like it's the right decision for me, at this moment."

Following her announcement, McCain's co-hosts offered kind words and shared a few memories of their time together. "It has been quite wonderful to sit across from you," said Goldberg. "It was an honor when he said, 'Please take my child.'"

"He told me to take it easy on Meghan, and that I would learn to love her and understand her, and that she would be a pain in the ass," recalled Sunny Hostin. "And he was right about all of those things."

"You and I have had our disagreements. We've had our fights, but we've also had some drinking moments which were rather interesting," added Joy Behar. "But I have to say, what you and I have in common is that we're on a show where we stick our necks out. We take the blowback. We take a lot of hits on this show, and we stick by our points of view. You have done that brilliantly for four years."

"I really, really appreciate the fact that you were a formidable opponent in many ways and that you spoke your mind," continued Behar. "You're no snowflake, missy."

McCain will remain on the show through the end of Season 24. Her final episode is scheduled for late July, which, as McCain noted, gives her four additional weeks of fighting with her co-hosts.

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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.