Meghan McCain Returns to ‘The View’ Following John McCain’s Death

Weeks after she mourned the death of her father, Sen. John McCain, Meghan McCain returned to The View.

Upon her return, she insisted that her father’s “ideals for America” did not die with him, telling viewers that when a candidate for office “says something racist at a rally and you push back, that is what America is.”

After Sen. McCain died in August of a malignant brain tumor discovered last year, President Donald Trump was not invited to his funeral, as per McCain’s request. Former presidents Barack Obama and George G. Bush were asked to deliver eulogies.

Meghan McCain asked viewers of the ABC News program to “join me in not surrendering” to “what is happening in the country right now.”

“At my father’s final farewell address, he said we are Americans and we never surrender,” she said through tears. “I understand how divided and how scared a lot of people are. It looks like the fabric of democracy is fraying. We do not surrender, I’m not surrendering, you don’t do it either. So you have to join me in not surrendering.”

“I’m still here fighting, and I want all of you to fight with me,” she said to applause.

“It made me so inspired that the ideals that my father espoused throughout his career are the ideals of America. And I think there was a lot of talk about what died with him. And I am here today to tell you — it didn’t. It is alive and well. And I need us to remember that,” McCain said.

“He believed in American exceptionalism. He believed that America is the greatest country in the history of the world. He believed that when your candidate’s opponent says something racist in a rally you push back. That is John McCain. And that is what America is,” he added.

Elsewhere in her first moments back, she addressed each of her co-hosts individually.

“I have missed all of you, thank you so much,” she said. “First I want to thank ABC and the view for giving me this time. And I really want to thank all of America for being so kind to my family.”

She started with Whoopi Goldberg, telling her, “My father loved you. He loved you. He really loved you. And I love you. This woman let me cry in her dressing room all year last year. I would go in before the show. She would let me cry on her shoulder. She wears white blouses all the time – I ruined it with mascara. Your daughter Alex and her friends, they are my sisters. You are my family. He loved you and he wanted me to come back here.”

Next, she spoke to Abby Hunstman.

“Abby, when my dad was first diagnosed, I got wasted with you,” McCain said, to laughter. “Thanks so much. She was heavily pregnant and she watched me down Jack Daniels after Jack Daniels after Jack Daniels and I threw up and her sister held my hair back.”

Next, McCain spoke to guest host Yvette Nicole Brown, who appears frequently on The View.

“People don’t know this about you but you’re a caregiver to your father as well,” she said. “I met you here on the show. I texted with you all the time and you’d just pray with me backstage. You’re a true friend. I love you very much. you’re a very very very special person and I think you are someone who has such wisdom about taking care of our parents and the roles we have to play, especially as daughters to our fathers. I texted you two or three days before he died and I was freaking out and you payed for me and you talked to me and it was so wonderful.”

Brown said that “everything that was in him is in you” and that “he has passed the torch to you. You are the perfect person to carry on” what he stood for.

Next McCain spoke to Sunni Hostin.

“When somebody dies you need Sunni around,” McCain said. “This is what she’ll do. She’ll text you and say, ‘You need to hide out at my house? ‘Cause I got it for you and I won’t tell anyone. And I’ll give you lavender honey and you can hang out with my chickens. You and Manny prayed for me. You’ve been such a friend to me. You’ve been so amazing with me. I also got drunk with you, and I just appreciate having you as a friend as well.”

McCain finished up her thanks by saying, “None of us agree at this table very much when it comes to politics in the world but we are all sisters here supporting each other. And this is what America should be.”

Lastly, she thanked former Vice President Joe Biden, saying she “wouldn’t be here without” him and former Sen. Joe Lieberman, who Trump had considered for the position of FBI Director after firing James Comes.

“God is real. I wouldn’t be here without my faith. But I also wouldn’t be here without Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman,” she said. “Those two men have carried me through this experience. I just want to thank them for being uncles to me.”