Abby Huntsman, one of the conservative co-hosts of The View, took aim at President Donald Trump on Monday for his silence over a violent parody video showing him killing political opponents and the news media, calling for him to speak out against it and display “leadership.”
The New York Times reported on Sunday night that the macabre video—which is an edited massacre scene from the 2014 film Kingsman: The Secret Service—was shown at an event held by pro-Trump group America Priority at Trump National Doral Miami. The three-day conference featured Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, among others.
At the top of Monday’s broadcast of the ABC chatfest, The View’s Whoopi Goldberg noted that current White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Monday morning that the president “strongly condemns” the video while also claiming that he hadn’t seen it yet.
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“With all the Twitter stuff he does, he couldn’t come out and condemn it himself,” Goldberg said. “He had someone else do it.”
Huntsman, meanwhile, pointed out that the video is “horrific” before imploring viewers not to seek it out because “it’s vile” and “one of the most disgusting things I have seen.”
This prompted fellow conservative host and former Fox News personality Meghan McCain to weigh in, saying she had gotten into arguments with fellow conservatives on Twitter who were saying this was “just free speech or being a snowflake.” McCain, went on to add that besides Trump shooting her deceased father in the parody video, the clip shows Trump taking aim at other real people and could be seen as making a threat against someone in office.
The panel then talked about the widespread outrage that followed comedian Kathy Griffin over the photo of her holding up a mask made to look like Trump’s decapitated bloody head, saying that if you were upset about that you should also be upset over the violent video.
Noting that this clip was shown to attendees at a pro-Trump event at one of the president’s properties, Huntsman took issue with the president finding time to tweet about a whole range of topics on Monday morning while ignoring the video.
“If you are tweeting about Dancing with the Stars,” it is now 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast,” she declared. “We have not—we have not read a tweet yet from the president denouncing this saying that this is violent.”
“That’s why I say, where is the leadership?” Huntsman added. “Because I’m just grateful my kids are too young to understand what’s going on.”
As of publication, Trump’s Twitter feed was filled with requests to vote for Sean Spicer on DWTS, clips of his favorite Fox News programs, quotes from One America News personalities, and criticism of Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade for disagreeing with the president on Syria. But, alas, nothing condemning the video made by pro-Trump memesmiths.
