President Donald Trump disavowed proposed cuts to the Special Olympics, which Betsy DeVos had spent three days defending, and Behar said the controversial measure revealed much about the administration.
"This shows you though what this administration is all about, right there it shows you," Behar said. "To the point that she's working for him when she's so rich and has 10 yachts, have you seen the pictures? She's really rich -- really rich. Rhymes with rich, huh?"
McCain stepped in to defend DeVos, saying her family's vast wealth was irrelevant.
"I don't think her wealth should be held against her in this situation," McCain said. "I actually think it's admirable when people are extremely wealthy and decide to go into service."
McCain agreed the Education secretary lacked the necessary experience for her job, but she said it shouldn't matter whether or not DeVos appears to have empathy.
"I don't think it was about her heart in this situation," McCain said. "I think it was about the idea that where we should make cuts on programming, and that was her argument, which we all agreed yesterday was ill-advised, and the amount of money was, I believe $15 million, which is four trips to Mar-A-Lago. If we can just again extract emotion from some of these conversations and stick with facts instead of doing character assassinations on people, i think it's more effective."
Co-host Ana Navarro said she couldn't extract her emotions from political discussions, and McCain insisted she could keep her personal feelings out of debates.
"I don't like her, I don't like him," McCain said. "As everyone is very clear, I have a lot of personal feelings about the president, but for me to get through this administration, I can't traffic in this kind of way. I have to stick with facts or I'm going to lose my mind."
Behar said facts don't matter to a dishonest and corrupt administration, and McCain said she refused to stoop to that level.
"I am better than they are," she said, "because I hold myself to a different standard than they do, and the second I go low with this administration is the second I lose my credibility and character, and I will not do it."
Navarro said emotions were relevant to the political climate because Trump was swept into office on a wave of voter anger, and she said discussions needed more than a recitation of statistics -- which the poll-citing McCain took as a personal attack.
"I don't believe I'm sitting here reading statistics," she said, but Navarro said she missed the point.
"I'm not talking about you," Navarro said. "I'm talking about the American people, in general."
