Sunny Hostin says Meghan McCain's replacement on 'The View' should be 'really conservative,' but not someone who 'spreads misinformation'

Sunny Hostin, The View co-host and author, has cast her vote for the kind of person who should join herself and the other hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sara Haines, at the table.

"Right now, we still do need a really conservative voice," Hostin told The Cut. "I also believe it's really important to not have someone on the panel who spreads misinformation, who adheres to the big lies, who is an anti-vaxxer, because I think that's dangerous."

As Hostin sees it, that's the political ideology that's missing among her co-hosts, since Meghan McCain left in August. Joy Behar is "very progressive," while Whoopi Goldberg is more liberal when it comes to economics, and her own beliefs are in between "progressive values and conservative values." Sara Haines, who, like Hostin, joined the show in 2016, "says she's an independent."

However, Hostin asked, "Is [Haines] really an independent or just somebody that won't commit? We need someone that will commit and we don't have that voice. And we need someone that's not duplicative of anyone else on the panel."

Since she left, McCain has openly slammed the show. In her audiobook Bad Republican, which was released in October, she said there was a "toxic" work environment and that her on-air arguments with her co-hosts were not just for the cameras.

Hostin said she's been friends with McCain since August 2020, when McCain moderated an event promoting her book. But she disagreed with her take on the show in the new interview.

"I think she thinks that people did not like her or treated her a certain way because of her opinions. I certainly don't share any of her opinions … at all … about anything … but I don't feel that way about her," Hostin said of McCain. "I can't claim to understand her because I think she's very complicated. Her experience is her experience. No one can say that she didn't experience it in that way because it's hers. I didn't see it that way. I didn't experience it the way she did. But I'm going to defer to her that she experienced it like that."

Hostin acknowledged that the show doesn't always operate smoothly. She was actually hesitant to return to the studio in September, after having worked remotely since March 2020, but that was because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sadly, she lost both of her in-laws within four days of each other to COVID-19 complications.

"It's like seeing your dysfunctional family again," Hostin said. "There was an energy there that was very comforting, actually, because we all are really, really close … even though people don't believe it."

One such awkward moment happened on the Sept. 24 episode. With the women in the middle of a show and moments from interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris, executive producer Brian Teta instructed Hostin and frequent guest co-host Ana Navarro to leave the stage, because they had tested positive for the coronavirus.

"My first thought was, That's not even possible. I’m triple-vaccinated!" Hostin said. "I had received the booster a couple weeks before."

Within half an hour, Hostin tested negative in a rapid test. She eventually tested negative on two PCR tests, too. "I was of course thrilled, but also disappointed," said Hostin, a former federal prosecutor who had planned to ask Harris about the Haitian migrant crisis. "And I was a little angry about it."

Navarro's test was also a false positive.

Hostin said she believes the show is investigating what happened.

Yahoo Entertainment has reached out to the show for comment.

Teta apologized to the women on the Sept. 27 show. "In the midst of all this chaos, they were put in this position where they had this information put out on television and then to make it even worse, it turned out not to be true later on," he said. "It was unfortunate that mistakes were made, but I can confidently say that we have very vigorous safety protocols, that everyone is regularly tested and I'm just so relieved that you guys are healthy, that everyone is healthy and nobody was ever in danger."