'The View' Battles Over Whether Republicans Should Have Put 'Country Before Party' In Midterm Elections

Meghan McCain said Democrats could learn a lesson or two from the outcome of the midterm elections on Wednesday's episode of "The View," telling her more liberal-leaning cohosts that what happened on Tuesday was not the "blue wave" they were all expecting.

While Democrats took back the House of Representatives and several state governments, the GOP saw gains in the Senate and Ted Cruz' victory over Hollywood darling Beto O'Rourke proved a particularly tough pill to swallow.

Though Sunny Hostin admitted that candidates like O'Rourke and Andrew Gillum were "long shots," McCain warned that making them national figures before election day was a bad idea.

"What I thought was most interesting is -- I said on this show be careful nationalizing candidates -- candidates that got really nationalized ended up losing last night," she said. "All politics is local, especially in your first race. Just because major media markets love you, it is not a winning pathway in the middle of the country."

She also took aim at a Democratic message point, explaining that there's "an impression sometimes ... that all Republicans, if you're against Trump or you have issues with his rhetoric, that automatically I have somehow morphed into a liberal."

That couldn't be further from the truth, McCain continued. "The serious lesson for Democrats is Republicans are not going to vote against their own agenda and against their own interest," she continued.

Hostin began to say how that was "disappointing" to her, before McCain cut her off.

"Of course it's disappointing, you're a Democrat," said Meghan. "It's not disappointing for me, I'm a Republican, I'm gonna end up voting for Republicans and there's a way to differentiate Trump and candidates."

Regaining the floor, Hostin explained that "it was disappointing to me because I really agreed that character was on the ballot." She continued, "I understand that people want to vote with their party, but I think at some point you have to put country before party. And there's been so much divisiveness."

McCain countered that Trump "isn't the entire Republican party," adding that she would never vote for someone like Gillum.

"I think it's an interesting message for Democrats going to 2020, that if you vote Republican, you're putting your country second," she added. "That is a losing message. Go forth, continue losing, this was not a blue wave last night the way that you thought it would."

"They did take the house," Hostin shot back, "that's pretty wavy."