Meghan McCain Sounds Off On the Biden-Putin Summit: We Shouldn't 'Be Meeting with Putin at All'

Meghan McCain came out swinging in her first appearance on The View since last week. During a discussion about President Biden's summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the conservative co-host blasted the current administration for agreeing to the meeting in the first place, as "there's really egregious human rights violations going on" in Russia that Biden is choosing to ignore. "The meeting is almost meaningless," said McCain. "It's a lonely, sad place to be someone who is politically against Russia."

When asked about the Biden-Putin summit, McCain, who's been out sick for the past few days, made up for lost time with a screed about the United States' adversary. "I don't think we should be meeting with Putin at all," she said. "I think that Russia should be kicked out of the G7, especially while Alexei Navalny is still sitting in a Kremlin prison for just being an absolute freedom-fighter, seeking Democracy." (Joy Behar later corrected her, explaining that Russia was kicked out of the G8 — hence the new name — and McCain apologized for the mistake, noting that she's "very sick" and still recovering).

"The meeting, for me, it's almost pointless," continued McCain, adding that "President Biden already signaled in May when he withheld sanctions against the Nord Stream Pipeline" that he won't go toe-to-toe with Putin. "It's a huge, huge, huge, coup geopolitically for Russia," she said. "We have just given power and money to Vladimir Putin, the two things he cares about."

WHAT’S AT STAKE IN BIDEN & PUTIN MEETING? The co-hosts weigh in on Pres. Biden’s high-stakes summit with Russian Pres. Putin in Switzerland amid rising tensions over allegations of Russian election meddling, cyber terrorism, and human rights violations. https://t.co/9UjaNyrI83 pic.twitter.com/eJSZY4CxtW

— The View (@TheView) June 16, 2021

McCain went on to say that "as long as Biden is going to do another 'reset'" with Putin, as Presidents Bush Obama, and Trump did while in office, Russia will have the upper hand. "No president for my entire lifetime, since Reagan, has done anything to stop the [Russian] expansion," she said. "At the same time, there's really egregious human rights violations going on in this country, and they should not be treated in the same level as the rest of Europe and Western Democracies are."

People are talking about The View in our forums. Join the conversation.

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.