President Joe Biden's confrontation with a reporter at the end of a press conference in Europe this week prompted a heated exchange between "The View" co-hosts Meghan McCain and Whoopi Goldberg.
The co-hosts went at it Thursday, a day after Biden shouted at CNN's Kaitlan Collins upon her asking the president what made him confident Russian President Putin will change his widely condemned behavior.
"Just because [former President Donald] Trump was so bad, it doesn’t absolve Biden's bad behavior," McCain said, referring to Trump's relationship with the media, The Hill reported.
"What he just did was 100 percent Trump-y. I just think I would like a little intellectual consistency. If Trump had done that, we would be screaming at the top of our lungs ... one way or another."
Biden's reaction to Collins came at the end of a press conference in Geneva, where he held a summit with Putin.
McCain, who said the president's behavior was "unbecoming and ridiculous," added that reporters likely were getting "sick of" Biden being protected by his team and not being more accessible to the media.
"It’s the press’s job to speak truth to power," McCain said. "And just because Biden has gotten a pass so far ... It is no one's best interest to continue to treat him like it's state TV."
"Yeah, the thing I never saw Trump do was apologize to anybody," Goldberg replied, according to The Hill.
"With all due respect, I don't care that he's apologizing, he just embarrassed himself," McCain said as the women continued to talk over each other.
"I don't care that you don't care," Goldberg said.
"Well I don't care that you don't care, Whoopi, so we're even," McCain replied.
Goldberg, sending the show to break, told McCain, "Well then, good Meghan, then you can be how you always are."
"You can be how you always are!" McCain responded.
At the end of Wednesday’s press conference, Biden shouted at Collins after she asked him how confident he was that Putin would change.
"I’m not confident. Where the hell — what do you do all the time?" said Biden, who changed direction and began walking toward Collins.
"When did I say I was confident? What I said was ... let’s get it straight, what will change their behavior is if the rest of the world reacts to them and it diminishes their standing in the world. I’m not confident of anything, just stating the facts."
As Collins continued to ask how the summit could be termed "constructive," Biden said: "If you don't understand that, you're in the wrong business."
Biden later apologized for his outburst.
The press conference followed a summit between Biden and Putin, who agreed to hold arms control and cybersecurity talks.
The discussions at the lakeside Villa La Grange in Geneva lasted 3 hours -- less than Biden's advisers had said they expected -- but the U.S. president said they had been intense and detailed, and that "we didn't need to spend more time talking."
Unlike past summits, where presidents appeared together at a press conference, Biden and Putin met the media separately.