Updated: Thursday, July 1, 2021 at 11:30 am ET

Meghan McCain is leaving The View at the end of this season, she announced on Thursday’s show.

“For the past four years, Meghan McCain has brought her fierce determination and vast political knowledge and experience to The View. She recently came to us with her decision to depart the show at the end of this season, a difficult choice that she made for her and her family that we respect and understand. We wish the best for Meghan as she plans her next chapter, and thank her for the passion and unique voice that she shared with us and our viewers each day,” said ABC in a statement.

McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has been part of The View’s panel of women since October 2017. The show’s current panel is composed of Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines. 

McCain has occupied the role of conservative firebrand on the daytime talker, which has become a necessary stop for campaigning politicians. Many of the spats McCain has gotten into with guests and co-panelists have gone viral across social media, helping to lift the show’s ratings. 

According to Variety, McCain moved to Washington, D.C. during the pandemic and does not want to return to New York when the show resumes filming live there in September. During the pandemic, the hosts were calling in on Zoom from their homes.

McCain joined The View from Fox News, where she frequently contributed to the program Outnumbered. She departed Fox News in September 2017. Before that, she contributed to The Daily Beast and MSNBC and worked for the now-defunct cable network Pivot. She first came to public attention when she blogged about life on the campaign trail during her father’s presidential run against Barack Obama in 2008.

Participant Media-owned social-action programmer Pivot said author Baratunde Thurston has joined the cast of weeknightly news program TakePart Live as the third co-host, with Jacob Soboroff and Meghan McCain.

Thurston, who has been a frequent guest on the show, is CEO and co-founder of the digital storytelling and marketing site Cultivated Wit, author of the best-selling book How To Be Black and a prolific keynote speaker. He also is former politics editor at The Onion and founded the black political blog Jack & Jill Politics.

TakePart Live (10 p.m. ET/7p.m. PT) is produced by Embassy Row. It originally debuted in August 2013, with Soboroff and Cara Santa Maria as hosts. It relaunched this past May with Soboroff, McCain and Eddie Huang as hosts, but Huang left after several weeks.