'View's' Behar: Hillary Clinton 'Vilified' by the Press

By Justin McCarthy | January 08, 2008 | 16:30

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Are Hillary Clinton’s recent troubles the result of unfair press coverage? According to "The View’s" Joy Behar they are. On the January 8 edition of the ladies chat show, the co-hosts discussed Senator Clinton’s recent emotional breakdown when Behar exclaimed, "I feel like crying for her now. I feel so bad about how the press has been vilifying her."

As is expected for a woman who frequently gets her facts wrong, the facts simply do not back her up. Even the allegedly "conservative" Fox News gave the New York Senator a softball interview. Since the fall, several negative stories about Senator Clinton broke that the network news simply did not pick up. Some of the most prominent examples include news that former President Bill Clinton left his wife in charge of Clinton Library documents that have not been released, and raising an extremely high amount of money from poor Chinese immigrants.

Behar then opined on a recent "New York Times" op-ed by hard left feminist Gloria Steinem noting that Steinem’s line, "men especially tend to feel that they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman," "was just brilliant."

Token conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck, back from maternity leave, noted she felt Hillary’s cry was genuine, but added, "It’s almost like a pity cry. Like ‘I’m upset because this is happening to me and my dream.’"

Behar did not buy it at all.

"I don’t think that’s what she was crying about. She was crying about ‘I feel bad because I had such hope for my candidacy and my country. [applause] And look at what this administration has done for eight years. And I want to fix it and I’m not being allowed to fix it.’ That’s what she was crying about."

Relevant portions of the conversation are below.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Miss Hillary Clinton. Now, you know, everyone is showing this clip of her because it seems that she actually got emotional. And the- I think it’s kind of funny because, you know, she talked about why she was doing it and how it was moving onto her. And I found that people were just like "Oh my God! She’s cracking! She’s falling apart!" This is crazy.

JOY BEHAR: See what you think about it if you look at it because I think you can see either way.

SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY): We have so many opportunities from this country. I just don’t want to see us fall backwards. No.

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Yeah, they asked her, "Hillary how do you do it?" And just as a woman, it, it got me. Because she’s speaking from her heart.

BEHAR: I feel like crying for her now. I feel so bad about how the press has been vilifying her. That, as a woman, I mean, I like Obama too. Either one of them would be fine with me. It’s just that they have just been doing a number on her. [applause] You know, as a woman, thank you! And I’m hoping that there will be a female backlash at some point, only because it’s not fair. She cries, she’s too emotional. She doesn’t cry, she’s a bitch. No matter what this woman does, she can’t win because she’s female.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Well, I, I, I don’t know about that. I think that anyone that is running for that seat as our president of the United States of America, I think should be under scrutiny. And we should thoroughly examine what they’re about. Not just because they’re a woman, or just because they’re a man, or just because they’re white, or just because they’re black. But I think you see all of the candidates now. Barack doesn’t have a voice. I think that this is an exhaustive process because they’re trying to grab people and she for the first time, and we saw her in the beginning of this election. And she had, I guess what we would call a sense of entitlement. That this was her race, and she was going to do it, and I think she’s seeing for the first time that, that may not happen.

BEHAR: Don’t take anything for granted.

HASSELBECK: And, you know, the whole Barack fever is taking over. And he’s getting the young vote like she thought she would and it’s disappointing.

GOLDBERG: Well, it’s interesting because it’s the same vote that Bill Clinton got in on. You remember Rock the Vote? That, you know, so youngsters are out there and they want something to happen. But now, not only are they getting tired. Because you know, there’s no makeup. They got, you know, their hands are shaking. They’re putting on their lipstick. The guy, the guys haven’t brushed their hair for days. Mitt’s hair is like this.

BEHAR: Really?

GOLDBERG: Yes! He looked like little Dennis the Menace.

[laughter]

BEHAR: But Romney, Mitt Romney is the most manicured lawn I have ever seen. I mean, this man every hair is exact.

GOLDBERG: Not any more. Not any more.

HASSELBECK: He looks like he could be on the dollar, right? He looks very presidential.

BEHAR: The two dollar bill maybe.

[laughter and applause]

HASSELBECK: Ouch!

[...]

BEHAR: Gloria Steinem has a great piece in "The New York Times" today if anybody wants to go online or pick it up around the country. She says that "men especially tend to feel that they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman." I thought that was just a brilliant statement. They’re like "ma" and they’re scared, they get scared. And it’s just. I don’t know what she’s supposed to do.

HASSELBECK: But she is also dealing with another issue too, Senator Clinton, because people are now even saying not only did she cry, they’re questioning was it a real cry? They’re actually questioning was that legit?

BEHAR: Oh it was real.

HASSELBECK: No, I do think, I do, watching that I do think she has exhaustion, and disappointment, and she’s facing a reality she didn’t think she would. But I think that they, because she has already created this sense of "I don’t know who she is." And "I don’t know if she’s a real, what she’s really feeling." They’re actually questioning the true emotion that’s coming out of her.

BEHAR: But it’s time for her, I think, if I were telling her what to do, which I could, if she called! [laughter] But I think that she should do more of that now. She should throw caution to the wind now. Be yourself. Stop being a robot trying to satisfy people who are watching you to always have the answer right like the kid in the class who’s always right. Don’t do that. Let’s see your vulnerabilities now. She has nothing to lose.

SHEPHERD: I loved it because I thought, I thought this is the first time you’ve spoke from the heart. And it just touched my heart.

GOLDBERG: Well, let me ask you. If you had seen one of the male candidates doing it, would you feel better?

SHEPHERD: [shaking head] mmm-mm, mmm-mm.

BEHAR: The times have changed Whoopi.

HASSELBECK: Times have changed because-

GOLDBERG: Now, I’m curious.-

HASSELBECK: Edmund Muskie in ‘72, they said he was crying, he was crying-

GOLDBERG: And he was done.

HASSELBECK: He said "oh no, that wasn’t a tear. That was a snowflake on my face." He wanted no sign of weakness.

SHEPHERD: I think, and we’ve had this discussion before. But I think, you know, I don’t want to see a man cry, because I’m like you got to take care of the country. As a man, I need to see you rise up. I don’t want to see the crying.

HASSELBECK: Well, what about the woman? Doesn’t she need to-

BEHAR: Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Why can’t you cry and rise up at the same time?

[applause]

SHEPHERD: Well, for me, for me-

BEHAR: Why can’t you do both?

SHEPHERD: I told you this. You know, you got a one cry rule with me. I need to see a man. You get to cry one time. I may see a few tears. You cry more than that-

HASSELBECK: It’s what you’re crying about I think they’re saying. They’re saying she’s crying. It’s almost like a pity cry. Like "I’m upset because this is happening to me and my dream."

BEHAR: I don’t think that’s what she was crying about. She was crying about "I feel bad because I had such hope for my candidacy and my country. [applause] And look at what this administration has done for eight years. And I want to fix it and I’m not being allowed to fix it." That’s what she was crying about.

HASSELBECK: She was crying because she was not being allowed to fix it. It was more on her- She was not crying on behalf of others.

BEHAR: I would be crying for that also some day.

SHEPHERD: I don’t want to see a president just go "oh Lord. We’re trying so hard. [laughter] I just- I don’t know-" I don’t want to see that.

HASSELBACK: While we’re at war.

SHEPHERD: Yeah while we’re at war.

GOLDBERG: Hold up. Hold up. If you- but you can not. But you see, you can not dictate someone’s feeling. If they are feeling something, if something has hit them, you can not say "because you’re a man, you’re not allowed to cry because you’re leading the country." If it hurts, here, or here, bring it on!

HASSELBECK: Here’s the problem though. We’ve been seeing fake tears from people for a long time now. And I don’t know who to trust because they pander in this way and they come up with an accent in the south, and they go ahead and talk like a preacher when they’re in a church. It’s really disturbing to me because I don’t even trust any emotion any more from politicians.