Meghan McCain clashes with Whoopi Goldberg over allowing felons like Boston Marathon bomber to vote

Whoopi Goldberg clashed with “The View” co-host Meghan McCain over a proposal by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to allow terrorists like the Boston Marathon bomber the right to vote.

Goldberg agreed that felons, even sex offenders and terrorists like Dhzokar Tsarnaev, should be allowed to vote if and when freed from prison. Horrified that Goldberg would even entertain such an idea, McCain nearly lost it as she tried to convince Goldberg to quit defending Sanders’ proposal. “He killed people!” a shocked McCain announced.

Voting rights for “terrible people”

The exchange came after Sanders said Monday that “the right to vote is inherent to our democracy” at a CNN town hall. “Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘That guy committed a terrible crime, not gonna let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not gonna let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope,” he said. The comments were widely criticized.

Fellow presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) initially said she was open to the idea, but then backtracked a day later.

McCain brought up Sanders’ proposal to her co-hosts Tuesday, saying it was “disgraceful.” “For Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris to go on TV and say that the Boston terrorist deserves any rights in this country after killing three people and injuring 264 in 2013, I think is disgraceful,” McCain said. “Does anyone think a terrorist should have a right to vote?”

Whoopi Goldberg supports votes for felons

None of the other panels members said that they supported Sanders’ proposals to let felons vote from prison, but Goldberg argued that felons should have their rights restored when they’ve served their sentence, prompting a shocked reaction from McCain.

“Here’s what I’m going to say: If they let this terrorist out because he served his time, he gets his, if he’s an American citizen as…why is your mouth open like that?”

“Because, Whoopi, he killed people,” McCain said.

“Yes, lots of people do this,” Goldberg replied. “Our Constitution says, if you have done your time, you have, we hope, been reformed, been changed. If they let him out, that means they feel his time is up and he gets to be an American citizen again.”

Goldberg said that Tsarnaev should not and would likely never leave prison and that the Constitution should be interpreted as enfranchising all released inmates. “If they let this man out, they are saying ‘he has been reformed, we have fixed him — rehabilitated him,'” Goldberg added. Watch below:

Co-hosts Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Abby Huntsman backed Goldberg. Hostin argued that denying ex-convicts voting rights “disproportionately” affects people of color, while Behar argued that voting rights have to be granted and revoked categorically rather than “picking and choosing.”

Behar also noted that Sanders’ proposal is a gift to his opponents. “It’ll be used in a campaign ad against him because it doesn’t sound good,” Behar said.

Some viewers reacted by standing up for Goldberg, saying that McCain misrepresented her position.”Whoopie was not agreeing that violent felons should get the right to vote while in jail or that they should be let out ever. She was just saying that IF a violent felon is set loose in society, their right to vote should be reinstated. Meghan was too hysterical to hear her,” one said.

Rehabbing terrorists?

But even taking Goldberg’s position in good faith doesn’t make it less absurd. Is “rehabilitation” for convicted terrorists really part of the national debate now?

Some have questioned why liberals support voting rights for ex-convicts but not gun rights, leaving some to conclude that the movement to enfranchise felons is just another power grab by the Democrats.