Whoopi Goldberg and Sara Haines are shrugging off former co-star Meghan McCain’s accusations in her new audio memoir Bad Republican that The View is a “toxic” workplace. The two ABC talk show panelists were asked by TooFab while leaving the New York City set Thursday about McCain’s recent criticisms of the show after her exit in July.
Goldberg shrugged and answered, “Alright,” while climbing into her car post-show. “You know, I’m trying to get my leg and my hip right,” she continued, gesturing to her cane. “I don’t have time to think about anything but myself.” Asked if McCain was “persona-non-grata” moving forward at ABC, Goldberg simply motioned to The View‘s office. “You know, I’ll leave all that to the adults,” she answered calmly.
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Haines, who has maintained a friendship with McCain since her exit, had a similarly diplomatic answer. “Everyone’s kind of got their own journey and their trip and their experience,” she said.”I love this place, it’s been very good to me. She just doesn’t work here anymore though — she’s moved on.” In terms of the toxic workplace accusations, Haines answered only, “I’ve never experienced that myself!”
McCain says in her new audiobook that she faced “toxic, direct and purposeful hostility” during her time as the conservative pundit on the show, specifically calling out former co-hosts Joy Behar and Goldberg, whom she said “grew meaner and less forgiving” throughout the course of former President Donald Trump’s term.
McCain wrote she felt her colleagues began to see her “as if I had become an avatar for everything they hated about the president,” echoing similar allegations while talking to Variety. The daughter of late Sen. John McCain described The View as “unhinged and disorganized and rowdy,” claiming she was made to feel isolated “because of my political ideology” as she believed her co-hosts would take “out their anger on the administration on” her.
Asked if she saw similarities between The View and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which underwent an investigation into allegations of a toxic workplace, McCain answered, “In a different way, yeah. I don’t think anyone should walk into a work environment where they feel like they can’t have a bad day without it being blasted over the internet, painting them out to be a psycho.”
