Meghan McCain Stumps for Ron DeSantis: Attacking Him is 'Making Him More Powerful'

Meghan McCain spent her penultimate day on The View prognosticating the 2024 GOP primary, and she was quick to throw her support behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who emerged as a Republican Party star (for better or for worse) during the COVID-19 pandemic. After Sunny Hostin called out Gov. "Death-Santis" for his lax COVID response, McCain encouraged Democrats to "keep attacking him," as it's "making him more powerful" within conservative circles, and therefore more likely to be the GOP nominee in 2024. "He knows what he's doing," said the co-host, her reverence coming through loud and clear.

Interestingly, McCain's co-hosts applauded Republicans like Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson for finally coming around on COVID-19 earlier in the segment, but rather than go for an easy "I told you so" layup, the conservative re-upped her criticism of Biden's pandemic response. "What I think is really interesting is this recent Quinnipiac poll that said that Americans' approval rating of President Biden's handling of the coronavirus — in May, it was at 65%, now in July it's at 53%. It's a pretty big leap down," she said, when Whoopi Goldberg threw the discussion her way. "So, people can place blame on people like Ron DeSantis and people like Asa Hutchinson and whomever else, but the buck does stop with the president."

"The narrative that, 'Oh, he's only been here for eight months' — the American public doesn't care," continued McCain. "If I were a Democrat, I'd be concerned about why these numbers are going down with the approval rating."

WILL GOP GOVERNORS REVERSE MANDATE BANS? As COVID-19 rates rise in southern states and hospitals are running out of beds, the co-hosts react to Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson saying he regrets a mask ban and Florida Gov. DeSantis sparring with Pres. Biden. https://t.co/eTdYy2z5mT pic.twitter.com/SPl4UVPwUI

— The View (@TheView) August 5, 2021

McCain then turned her attention to Hostin's specific criticism of DeSantis ("There are allegations that he hid the death numbers... I don't want a president who directly led to the deaths of people and may be hiding death numbers," said Hostin). Said McCain, "In regards to Ron DeSantis, he's such a target for the left right now. Everyone should keep attacking him because it's just making him more powerful and more likely to be the nominee for president."

"A lot of the reason he has popularity has to do with the way he's handled mask mandates and freedoms and opening up the beaches in Florida," she continued. "There's not an exodus out of these major cities like New York and Los Angeles, places we're seeing all across the country from these blue-led areas into red states — this absolute exodus we're seeing culturally — if there's not a problem."

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