What To Know
- The hosts of The View criticized Donald Trump for his repeated verbal attacks on female journalists.
- The panelists highlighted his history of using derogatory language when confronted with tough questions.
- They raised concerns about Trump’s business ties to Saudi Arabia, questioning the ethics and constitutionality of his actions.
The cohosts of The View had a lot to say about the back-to-back attacks Donald Trump had on female reporters. First, he famously told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey to “Quiet, piggy,” when she asked a question about the Jeffrey Epstein files on Air Force One. Then, he snapped at ABC News’ Mary Bruce in the Oval Office over her question to him about the appropriateness of his business dealings with Saudi Arabia while in office and to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about his alleged involvement with the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
“First of all, you know, I just broke my toe, so I’m sensitive to the word ‘piggy,’” Joy Behar said to start the conversation after reviewing footage of those two moments. “That’s one thing, but he loves to call the ‘piggy’ thing. Alicia Machado, the winner of the Miss Universe pageant, he called her ‘Miss Piggy.’ He called Rosie O’Donnell ‘a big fat pig’ back in 2006. That’s his favorite word. But with those criticisms — they’re questions, really, they’re not criticisms, they’re just legitimate questions for somebody in his position to answer.”
Sara Haines was the first to respond and particularly took issue with Trump’s comments on MbS: “What happened to ‘America first’? He literally jumped in as the Saudi royal prince’s vocal mouthpiece… This isn’t a debated topic. Jamal Khashoggi was dismembered. It wasn’t just a murder. It was a violent murder.” Haines continued, “The body was never returned. We just talked about Israel and the hostages and how many came back dead, but what a family could wait for. The body was never returned. All of it is awful. Honestly, President Trump would have been smart to let her offer cover to him because that’s what journalists do. Let her ask her question. You’re not giving anything up by letting him answer.”
“He doesn’t like the question, he attacks the questioner,” Behar noted.
Then Sunny Hostin jumped in to explain why Trump would be so quick to defend MbS and snap at a reporter questioning his morality, saying, “Let’s just follow the money, people, OK? … The president provided cover to the Saudi prince, the de facto head of Saudi Arabia. You know why? Because the Trump family has made $3.4 billion since he started the presidency 10 years ago. The other thing is Trump’s family has personal business at stake in Saudi Arabia, and I think we need to pay attention to that. They are profiting from the government, profiting from the people, and his little cronies are profiting from us… These are the projects he has in Saudi Arabia: There’s a new project with their Saudi-linked development partners Star Global in the Maldives set to open in 2028; last month, the Trump Organization has announced a Trump Plaza to be built in Saudi Arabia; and he’s also brokered ties with the Saudi-backed golf league, so his US golf courses have hosted several of those golf league tournaments.”
“Isn’t there something called the Emoluments Clause?” Behar asked, perhaps rhetorically.
“It’s completely unconstitutional,” Hostin said. “We cannot normalize this president.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin then weighed in to praise the two journalists who were at the receiving end of Trump’s ire, saying, “I worked with both Catherine Lucey at Bloomberg and Mary Bruce at ABC News in my prior life. They’re world-class journalists. They are fair. They were asking serious questions. I get chills watching a female journalist stare at MBS and ask him about ordering the dismemberment of a fellow journalist like that. Those are the kind of tough questions the free press always has to be asking.”
She also pointed out her concerns with Trump’s dealings with Saudi Arabia with the announcement that the U.S. will now sell F-35 fighter jets to them. “Republicans have opposed this for decades because that’s some of our most advanced technology that the Chinese government will very likely, through their alliance with the Saudis, have access to if it goes to them,” she said. “I’m just waiting to hear Elise Stefanik, who was somebody who condemned this for years and fought against it — so many people who knew this was a national security threat, who seem to have no problem with it.”
Ana Navarro then wondered aloud, “Don’t you think the other reporters should have stuck up for?” After the other panelists answered in the affirmative, she continued, “I’ve always said that there needs to be more solidarity amongst the press, because look, Donald Trump has such a long history attacking and berating particularly female reporters.” After naming others who’ve endured similar treatment by Trump like Abby Phillips, April Ryan, and Megyn Kelly, she continued, “The fact that this is his modus operandi, the fact that this is who he is, does not mean that that is who we are as a country. We are a country that, unlike Saudi Arabia, we respect the free press.”
Haines got the last word on the subject when she added that Bruce’s question was asked, “on behalf of people who are outraged and shocked by what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, but also the 9/11 families. There are thousands of 9/11 survivors and victims and their families who are outraged that this guy, MbS, is being treated like royalty, batted at the White House, being given a state dinner type of thing, all of those things as if there was no role of Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 attack on America.”
The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
