Bernie Sanders was the straw that broke The View’s back.
The cast of the daytime talk show got into a heated argument over Sanders' view on voting rights and the criminal justice system.
The presidential candidate spoke in favor of felons being able to vote while they serve time during a CNN town hall on Monday, according to The Daily Beast. Sanders stuck to his guns when moderator Chris Cuomo used the Boston marathon bombers as an example.
“Yes, even for terrible people,” he stated. “Because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope.”
Sanders currently serves in one of the only two states that allows incarcerated people to vote. His experience in Vermont dramatically differs from the reality that many Americans face in the other 48 states. Many formerly incarcerated people in the state of Florida just received the right to vote in 2018. NBC reports 65% of voters in the state of Florida voted to "restore the right to vote for people with prior felony convictions, except those convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense, upon completion of their sentences, including prison, parole, and probation."
Sanders’ argument upset conservative panelist Meghan McCain.
“I was upset about it because… if Democrats want to drag everybody this far left, this is why people like me are so upset and so disenfranchised with how extreme this is,” McCain said.
“It's not hard to say the Boston terrorist was a psycho lunatic who is a threat not only to national security but shouldn't be allowed the right to vote in any election.”
McCain was also upset at Kamala Harris for suggesting a conversation about voting rights is needed. She evoked her brother and a sibling of co-host Abby Huntsman to argue her point.
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“I'm trying to tell you, what Bernie Sanders said is going to be turned into a clip that will be—it upset me this morning,” McCain said. “Abby and I—Abby and I didn’t have brothers that served multiple times, and I didn’t watch my brother deployed when he was 19 to fight this crap to have them come here and have the right to vote!”
Moderator Whoopi Goldberg presented a hypothetical situation in which the Boston bomber was released and regained his right to vote. She was trying to explain how people who are released from prison recover their rights, but McCain wasn’t having it.
“Now, wait, hold on. Let’s be realistic here,” Goldberg said. “The discussion here was if he got out. That was the discussion.”
“Then I’m against it,” McCain replied. She also criticized Goldberg for chuckling during the discussion.
“Maybe you think terrorism is funny; I do not,” she said.
The Sister Act star was cooler than cool when she threw the show to commercial.
“Don’t do that, Meghan,” Goldberg responded. “Don’t do that because what—what we are chuckling at, they see me trying to say it, and then Sunny started up again and realized I wasn’t going to get to say ‘We’ll be right back with more hot topics.’”
Watch the exchange:
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