'View' co-hosts clash over protests, Trump rally during COVID-19: 'Significant distinction''

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"The View" co-hosts clashed on Tuesday with two of the liberal co-hosts arguing that President Trump's upcoming rally was much worse than mass protests over George Floyd's death.

The debate started with co-host Joy Behar telling Trump supporters that the president didn't care about them or their health because he was willing to invite them to the rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Friday. The Trump campaign has asked supporters to sign a waiver releasing it from liability if they get sick.

"Do you think Chris Cuomo cared about people's health when he moved old people around to nursing homes that were COVID-positive and a lot of people died?" co-host Meghan McCain asked. She was apparently referring to CNN anchor Chris Cuomo's brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has faced a wave of backlash for forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients.

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McCain fired back by mentioning Fox News host Janice Dean, who claims Cuomo's policy cost her in-laws their lives. She added that "there's a lot of hypocrisy to go around here and this is one of the issues that I'm really enraged about."

"I don't think anyone should be in giant rallies right now because we've been told by medical experts it's not safe, but the message from the media is as long as you are protesting something or going to a rally that is of the right politics, you can do it and we're going to ignore the spread of COVID. So, going to a Trump rally is somehow much more danger than going to a rally in Brooklyn over the weekend," she said.

McCain warned that people were getting angry over the apparent double standard applied to protesters and everyone else.

"Is COVID a pandemic -- that we all have to stay sheltering and inside -- or is it not, or is it only a pandemic if you are a conservative and you're a Trump supporter and then you have to stay inside and you're a hypocrite if you sign this waiver and you go into his rally, but you're not a hypocrite if you go protest someplace else? It's very confusing."

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Co-host Whoopi Goldberg argued that people shouldn't be participating in either Trump rallies or ongoing protests. But Behar and co-host Sunny Hostin were more defensive, claiming that Trump's rally was worse because it was indoors and the president was actively inviting people to the event.

"The what about-ism is irrelevant to me right now. Nobody in the Cuomo administration has asked anybody to sign a waiver so that they can't be sued. It's a whole different ball game that we're talking about here," Behar said.

McCain countered that while she was no Trump fan, Behar made her defend him when she claimed that the president wants people to die. "I don't understand some of the mixed messaging that's happening," she said.

Behar went back to blaming Trump, creating a back and forth that extended until the commercial break.

"This is an American problem. This is a problem that is bipartisan. It is not just a Trump administration problem, Joy," McCain said. When Behar disagreed, McCain suggested her argument was "ridiculous."

When "The View" returned, Behar claimed that protesters should be wearing masks, but that the Trump rally was "ten times worse and much more dangerous" because it was indoors.

"It's completely different," she added. Hostin added that there was a "significant distinction" between Trump inviting people to the rallies and protesters choosing on their own to attend protests.

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"It just seems to me that, when you yourself make the decision to go outside and protest, and exercise your constitutional right to protest injustice like we've seen the murder of unarmed black men, that is one thing," she said.

"But when you have the administration that, the vice president in particular, who is responsible for the coronavirus task force -- inviting people to an indoor event, and the data shows that the indoor events are, people are more susceptible to catching the virus. I think that that is a significant distinction because one is someone choosing to go outside. One is the administration inviting people -- inviting 60,000 people or more to an indoor arena knowing the risk and then lying about the risk, and minimizing that risk. So, there isn't to me a mixed message here."