Joy Behar and Meghan McCain clash on The View, forcing Whoopi Goldberg to cut to commercial

It was McCain’s first day back on the talk show after taking maternity leave

Things got tense on The View between co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, and Meghan McCain, who was returning to the programme after taking maternity leave.  

The co-hosts were debating the tape of President Donald Trump asking Georgia secretary of state to "find" 11,780 votes to change the election in his favour.

Although McCain acknowledged that President-elect Joe Biden had won the election, she argued that Democrats should be more respectful of the 70 million Americans who voted for Trump.

"I just know people who quietly voted for Trump," she said. "They don't want to be shamed. They don't want to be yelled at. The don't want to be called racist... It should not have been this close."

"It wasn't close," said Behar in response, noting that Biden had the largest electoral margin since Barack Obama won in 2008 and Bill Clinton won in 1996.

"In terms of respect, respect the people who voted for Biden and let him take [Trump's] place," said Goldberg. 

"People always want respect but they don't want to give it. You have to respect the people who said 'we want this change.' The 180-or so Senators who want to disrupt – because they don't like the outcome. This is the bitch of being a democratic society. This is what it is. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We lost four years ago. Now, he's lost this year. You're not allowed to kvetch and poop all over this. This is not the American way. We don't always like who becomes president."

"If you're so comfortable, why is everyone so hysterical about what's happening in Georgia?" McCain shot back. "I'm sorry, but this is a very fractured country. It's very split. Georgia has been a reliably red state for decades and flipped this past November. The state has never been a swing state and wasn't considered by experts this year to be a swing state."

Read More: Meghan McCain confronts Sarah Sanders over Trump's alleged attacks on veterans

In response, Behar pointed out that a number of Trump voters were getting bad information from biased news sources, which likely influenced their votes.

"I think that's the perspective of Joy Behar, with all due respect. I know a lot of Republicans and that is not accurate," argued McCain.

"You're a proud progressive leftist, but I am a proud conservative and I think that the idea – the only reason why people voted for President Trump in the last election is that they were lied to and they're morons who are just being fed information is not only disrespectful and inaccurate," McCain said.

"I never said they were morons," Behar responded.

Goldberg cut to commercials after that. Watch the co-hosts’ interaction above.