Joy Behar kicked off Thursday’s episode of The View by apologizing to Sunny Hostin for defending CNN’s decision to hold a town hall with Donald Trump. Behar argued on Wednesday’s episode that CNN was championing the first amendment by holding the Trump event because he is the Republican front runner and it’s important to hear his views, as distorted as they may be. However, Behar’s opinion quickly changed after watching the debacle unfold.
“I was wrong,” Behar immediately admitted during the panel discussion. “What I didn’t know was that the audience would be filled with his cult,” she said about the clearly Trump-friendly crowd. “Was CNN passing out Kool-Aid before the event started?”
Behar also questioned whether Trump committed defamation again by smearing E. Jean Carroll during the hour long program. A jury found the former president liable for sexually abusing Carroll just the day before, and he’s been attacking her ever since.
TAKEAWAYS FROM TRUMP'S CNN TOWN HALL: After former Pres. Trump sat down on primetime television a day after being found liable for battery and defamation in the E. Jean Carroll civil case, #TheView co-hosts share their takes. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/mEqwQVASg8
— The View (@TheView) May 11, 2023
Behar continued to question CNN’s decision to stack the crowd with Republican and supposedly undecided voters. Via Deadline:
“If I do a comedy show and everybody loves me,” she said, “I’m going to be funnier, that’s how it works. But if you have people who don’t particularly think that you’re funny, you have to work harder.
“What I saw last night was a bad comedian with a bunch of people in his cult who love him.”
The rest of the panel involved the co-hosts challenging Alyssa Farah Griffin’s claim that moderator Kaitlan Collins did a “masterful job.” Hostin accused Collins of not being prepared, and she also dinged CNN for not fact-checking Trump in real time.
(Via Deadline)