Meghan McCain under fire for attacking Kathy Griffin on The View as she reveals cancer diagnosis

Meghan McCain is facing criticism for attacking Kathy Griffin on The View shortly after the comedian revealed that she is battling lung cancer.

On Monday, Griffin shared on social media that she had been diagnosed with stage one lung cancer and was undergoing surgery to have half of her left lung removed.

However, shortly after the comedian opened up about her diagnosis, The View co-host criticised her for past homophobic comments she made about Clay Aiken, and demanded an apology, before stating that she is “never going to like her”.

“My issue with Kathy Griffin is, I’m going to name drop Clay Aiken as one of my closest friends in the entire world, he’s [basically] my brother. She made very, very, very cruel and homophobic jokes about him before he was out of the closet,” McCain said on Monday’s episode of talk show. “We have to go back to like 2002, 2003, when that was still acceptable.

“He is a very strong person and he has a very strong constitution and he has said himself that he’s one of the last people that you can make homophobic jokes about and it’s still socially acceptable.”

McCain then said that she would “love to hear an apology” from Griffin before concluding: “I don’t like her. I’m never going to like her for all the jokes she made about Clay.”

During the segment, McCain also criticised Griffin for her controversial severed head Donald Trump photo, claiming that she doesn’t like to “see severed heads of anyone, any place, because it reminds me of what Isis does to our soldiers”.

McCain’s criticism of Griffin prompted a response from Whoopi Goldberg, who disagreed with her co-host regarding the severed head image, and claimed that everyone would agree that it was a “bad joke”.

Goldberg then touched on cancel culture, acknowledging that she is “still getting crap for stuff that happened 15 years ago,” before adding: “I love Kathy Griffin” and explaining she doesn’t want anyone to go through what the comedian is going through.

Following McCain’s comments, many viewers criticised the talk-show host for attacking Griffin the same day she revealed her cancer diagnosis.

“Um @kathygriffin is having cancer surgery right now,” Daily Beast editor-at-large Molly Jong-Fast tweeted along with a clip of McCain’s comments.

Another person said: “I’m not a Kathy Griffin devotee, by any means. But I am absolutely disgusted by Meghan McCain’s behaviour this morning on @theview. The fact @abcnetwork will let her get away with this is sickening.”

“Meghan McCain feels about Kathy Griffin the same way we all feel about Meghan McCain,” someone else tweeted.

While opening up about her diagnosis, Griffin revealed Monday that she had developed lung cancer despite never smoking, but said that her doctors are “very optimistic”.

In the post, the comedian also said that she is hopeful she will not have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation, and should “have normal function with my breathing” and expects to be up and “running around as usual in a month or less”.

“It’s been a helluva four years, trying to get back to work, making you guys laugh and entertaining you, but I’m gonna be just fine,” she said, before encouraging her fans and followers to “please stay up to date on your medical check-ups”.