The View Ignites Over Meghan McCain Defending Tulsi Gabbard: ‘Hillary Clinton is Questioning Her Loyalty’

The hosts of ABC’s The View got into a tense clash on Tuesday over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggesting last week that Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is Russia’s “favorite” candidate in the 2020 race.

Conservative co-host Meghan McCain argued that Clinton was questioning Gabbard’s loyalty to the U.S. and insisted that her comments were out of bounds given the Hawaii Democrat’s military service.

After McCain started a rant about Clinton spreading “McCarthyism,” her co-host Joy Behar attempted to interject but — in a typical moment of tension between the quarrelsome hosts — McCain cut her off: “Excuse me, I’m not finished.”

“You should have a problem because you’re questioning people’s loyalty to America who have fought and served,” she added. “Tulsi Gabbard enlisted after 9/11 and served for 12 months and by the way is currently in the National Guard. Hillary Clinton is questioning her loyalty to the United States.”

McCain, the daughter of late-Vietnam War veteran Sen. John McCain, went on to say that loyalty of service members “should not be questioned,” which Behar disputed, saying, “Hold on a second, just because somebody served because not ipso facto make them above reproach.”

“For me where I come from, it does,” McCain shot back. “If you are putting your life on the line for freedom … veterans get a pass from me.”

Co-host Sunny Hostin chimed in to note that America “does have war criminals.”

Whoopi Goldberg then proceeded to end the segment after suggesting that her colleagues stop talking over each other and show more “respect” for everyone “around the table;’ she closed by specifically calling out McCain for cutting her off “right now.”

In The View‘s following segment Tuesday, McCain told Hostin that the term “war criminal” is especially sensitive for her because critics have used it to describe her father.

“One thing that’s lauded at my family is that my father was a war criminal because while he was being tortured he conceded that he had committed war crimes because he was being tortured to the point of broken. So throwing the word war crime for me is something that’s very intense,” she continued. “Something that by the way I’m still dealing with today because al-Baghdadi was — look at my Twitter feed. There’s lots of conspiracy theories being thrown around about lots of soldiers in lots of different contexts and I think it is very, very dangerous.”

Watch the segments above, via ABC.