When Meghan McCain departed The View a few years ago, the daytime talk show’s signature scream-fests disappeared right along with her.
So it was something of a throwback on Wednesday when the hosts found themselves in legitimate disagreement over President Joe Biden’s potentially damaging comments in which he either called Trump supporters—or Trump‘s supporter’s rhetoric—“garbage,” depending on how his words are being received.
Even the live audience at The View audibly groaned when the clip played.
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Whoopi Goldberg began the segment by going after the “pearl-clutching” Republicans who suddenly “have a problem” with what Biden said but couldn’t bring themselves to be offended by Donald Trump calling America itself a giant “garbage can”—not to mention the Trump-supporting comedian’s joke calling Puerto Rico an “island of garbage” that Biden says he was referring to in the first place.
“I don‘t understand why you’re clutching your pearls,” Goldberg said. “You’re trying to make something out of a tongue slip.”
Joy Behar, meanwhile, went for the obvious joke: “For months and months, we’ve been hearing how Joe Biden is in dementia, that he’s old, he’s doddering, he can’t remember. All of a sudden, he’s clear as a bell!”
But co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, who worked in Trump‘s White House before turning against him, wasn’t laughing.
“I thought Kamala Harris knocked it out of the park with her closing message and this stepped on it,” she said. She gave Biden credit for quickly trying to clarify what he meant, something Trump would never do, but she still thought the damage was done for swing voters who would otherwise be willing to give Harris a chance.
“He’s talking about the comedian though!” Behar pushed back.
As the rest of the co-hosts piled on, Griffin got defensive, acknowledging the “unfair standard” on the way Trump talks vs. every other politician, but also arguing that Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment “did matter” and this could, too.
“It turned out she was right!” Goldberg said of Clinton’s infamous words.
Then there was Sunny Hostin, who told Griffin directly, “It’s intellectually dishonest for his supporters to suddenly be offended by President Biden’s slip-up—because I do believe it was a slip-up—after all that their guy has said. He called all of America a garbage can!"
Ultimately, Griffin insisted that “we all actually agree on this,” but then added, “To move beyond the era of Trump, you need leaders who aren’t going to call names.”
“And Kamala did not!” Hostin pointed out.
