There were a lot of opinions flying around Monday morning on The View when it came to a Virginia restaurant’s decision to kick out White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family over the weekend.
“I don’t like discrimination regardless of what shape it takes,” co-host Sara Haines said, comparing it to bakers who have refused to make cakes for same-sex weddings. “I just don’t think someone should be refused service or discriminated against because of their political affiliation.”
On the other side, Sunny Hostin said she does not believe what happened to Sanders was “discrimination.” When the public disagrees with their “public servant,” they have a right to “say so.” She added, “The fact that she wasn’t able to eat at a restaurant is not the same as children being ripped from their parents.”
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And to those, like Haines, who would say it was the same as businesses denying LGBT customers service, Hostin said, “Being gay is not a choice. Choosing to stand up and be the face of this administration is your choice.”
Joy Behar, who said she too has been heckled by Trump supporters at Costco, had a different take. On the one hand, she believes these incidents of White House officials being driven out of restaurants by angry critics represents a descent in the national discourse, explaining, “I don’t want it coming at me and I’m not doing it to them.”
“Save your rage for the voting booth,” Behar advised her fellow liberals. But then, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Sanders, she added, “They actually are shameless, so what’s the point of trying to shame them?”
By the end of the segment, they had moved on recent provocations by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who has implored her fellow Democrats to keep harassing Trump administration officials in public. In response, moderator Whoopi Goldberg said that if any restaurant really wants to refuse service based on ideological beliefs, they should “put it in the window.”
Agreeing with Goldberg, Meghan McCain said, “This is a very slippery slope. I don’t want pictures in the window saying, ‘Trump supporters not welcome,’ ‘Liberals not welcome.’” As Goldberg chimed in with “gay people not welcome, black people not welcome,” she asked, “What kind of country do we want to live in?”
