The hosts of The View could not wait to mix it up with Stormy Daniels.
After weeks of discussing the salacious details of President Donald Trump’s alleged affair with—and far more serious $130,000 payoff by his fixer Michael Cohen to—the adult film actress, they finally welcomed her onto their morning show set on Tuesday.
As the show repeatedly hyped since the appearance was announced, this was Daniels’ first “live” TV interview following previous taped sit-downs with Jimmy Kimmel, Anderson Cooper and others.
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Asked why she is continuing to speak out against the president and Cohen despite their threats of legal action (or worse), Daniels said, “Because I’m tired of being threatened and intimidating me and trying to say that you’ll ruin my life and take my, you know, all my money and my house and whatever, I’m sorry, I’m done. I’m done being bullied.”
With her ever-present lawyer, Michael Avenatti, by her side, Daniels explained that she appeared at Cohen’s court hearing on Monday to “make sure” people knew she was taking this case seriously.
“It was very important that Stormy was there to lend our support for the efforts of the U.S. Attorney’s office and to send a message that this is not a publicity stunt,” Avenatti added. “This is serious business. There’s a lot at stake here. These documents that are at issue could prove to be critically important as it relates to the future of the presidency.”
Cue Meghan McCain, the sole conservative on the panel, who replied, “It seems like a publicity stunt on some level.” She told Daniels, “because you didn’t have anything to do with the case, it seemed a little like you were just trying to get attention, which I understand that you’re being sued by our president, but it does seem like you’re benefiting a lot.” McCain cited her “Make America Horny Again tour” as an example. “I hadn’t heard your name until all this happened and now you’re literally live on The View giving an entire interview with us,” she said, “so it has been beneficial for your career.”
After Avenatti addressed the first part of McCain’s comments, Daniels spoke to the second. “Can I just say, first of all, I did not name the tour,” she said. “You won’t hear me say it. I haven’t promoted that name. I think it’s awful.”
“As far as the tour, yes, I’ve gotten more bookings than usual but I’m doing the job that I’ve been doing for the last almost 20 years,” Daniels continued. “Yes, there’s a lot of publicity, but I didn’t do it for that because this isn’t what I want to be known for. I hid from it for a while because it’s overwhelming and intimidating and downright scary. I’ve had to hire bodyguards. Yes, I’m making more money but I’m spending so much more.”
In response, Joy Behar told her, “You should never apologize for making a living.”
Daniels insisted that she is not trying to apologize, nor is she trying to use this incident to get out of the adult film business. “I worked really hard for the last decade in the adult business, which I have no qualms about,” she said. “I’m not ashamed.”
Later in the interview, they played the clip of Trump denying any knowledge of the $130,000 payment to Daniels, to which she replied, “Let me just say, I work in the adult business and I’m a better actress than he is.”
Daniels also discussed the physical threat she says she says she received in 2011 and even revealed a forensic sketch of the man who allegedly gestured towards her daughter and said, “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.” Avenatti told viewers there is a $100,000 reward to anyone who can positively identify the man and instructed people to contact him at idthethug@gmail.com.
Again, Meghan McCain challenged Daniels on the details of this story, asking why she didn’t go to the police right after it happened or tell news organizations about it earlier. “First of all, I was scared. It was expressly what he told me not to do,” she said. Beyond that, she added, “I would have had to tell the whole police department I had sex with Donald Trump and then the whole world would have known.”
“Honestly, one of the main reasons I didn’t say anything is because I didn’t tell my husband at the time,” Daniels said. “I didn’t want him to be upset with me. And then I felt like honestly so much time had passed I was embarrassed to say something.”
In their third segment together, The View hosts challenged Daniels to address rumors that she was high during her 60 Minutes interview. “It’s ridiculous. There’s no way I could have given an almost three-hour interview and made sense and been articulate if I was high and without leaving once to go to the bathroom,” she said. “It’s completely false. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t do that.”
But Behar had a more pertinent question for Daniels: “To have sex with someone you’re not attracted to when you don’t have to, why?” When Daniels hemmed and hawed a bit about women sleeping with men “out of pity” or because they didn’t know how to say no, Behar followed up by asking, “Be honest though with me. Did you do it—was there something in your head that said I’m going to be on Celebrity Apprentice if I do this? Was that there at all?”
“In that very moment, no. That thought wasn’t there until later like, maybe something good can come out of it. In that moment, I was like, oh... and then I blanked,” Daniels replied. She also said that unlike with Playboy model Karen McDougal, Trump did not offer her money after they had sex.
“I think that what I do for a living should not matter,” she said to those who would question her credibility because she’s a porn star. “What I do for a job doesn’t impact my ability to know right from wrong or to tell the truth.”
Finally, the conversation steered its way back to Michael Cohen and Monday’s court hearing. “There’s no question in my mind that Michael Cohen, a) is going to be indicted within the next three months, and b) he’s going to roll on the president,” Avenatti told them. “Based on my 18 years of experience, based on my experience in white collar cases and how they usually play out, and based on the fact that Michael Cohen has a family, he has kids. I understand that he’s a fairly devoted father, and he’s not going to look at his wife and say, no, I’m going to take a bullet for this president and at least ten [years] in a federal penitentiary.”
Asked what their “end game” is, Avenatti said, “We want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and we’re going to let all these people decide when they have all the facts and all the documents and they hear from all sides who’s telling the truth and who’s lying to them, period.”
And “on a selfish note,” Daniels said this is her “chance to defend myself and to make people realize how and why this happened so I can tell my side.”
