Beto O’Rourke bombs on The View as he gets grilled over his botched 2020 campaign rollout

Beto O'Rourke made his long-awaited debut on ABC's "The View," where he wilted under tough questioning by co-host Meghan McCain.

The conservative McCain has been critical of O'Rourke and his campaign on the show since launching his presidential bid in March, and she challenged him to defend his campaign to date.

"You did a Vanity Fair cover to announce your campaign and you said you were, quote, 'born to be in it,'" McCain said. "You went across the country alone on a road trip after you lost your election and you said you, quote, 'sometimes help raise your kids.' These are things in my mind that a female candidate wouldn't be able to get away with. Do you think you can get away with more because you're a man, and do you have any regrets about launching on the cover of Vanity Fair?"

O'Rourke agreed that he had enjoyed a lot of privileges in his life.

"I've had advantages that others could not enjoy, so being aware of that and then doing everything in my power to help correct that, working with others, ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, for example, so that it is beyond the shadow of a doubt that women will be treated equally in this country, staring in the face of the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and continued oppression in our economy and system of justice is the only way you begin the work of repair, and stop visiting those injustices on the generations that follow," O'Rourke said.

McCain pressed O'Rourke, who has announced a reboot of his campaign, to defend his campaign thus far, in particular the Vanity Fair cover story -- and he couldn't do it.

"I think it reinforces that perception of privilege and that headline that said I was born to be in this, in the article I was attempting to say that I felt that my calling was in public service," O'Rourke said. "No one is born to be president of the United States of America, least of all me."

Co-host Joy Behar pressed him on "the part-time dad thing," and he agreed he "deserved" the flack he got for that remark, and O'Rourke promised his wife -- and the panelists -- to be a better husband.

"So listen, I have a lot to learn, and still am, and I'm learning from the best," O'Rourke said.