Whoopi Goldberg Claims Bush Skipped Afghanistan to Attack Iraq

By Justin McCarthy | March 10, 2008 | 15:39

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"The View" co-hosts, typically very loose with the facts, demonstrated that again on the March 10 edition. Ironically accusing the Bush administration of lying to take America into war with Iraq, Whoopi Goldberg put out false information herself.

GOLDBERG: Let me say, let me say this. Now, when it all went down at 9-11 and he said "we’re going get him." I was like "come on Georgie, let’s go."

HASSELBECK: Right,

GOLDBERG: But he didn’t go where he said we were going. See, that’s where I got, because I woke up the next morning, we were in Iraq. I was like, what? I don’t think we’re in Afghanistan. So, for me-

Whoopi must have slept through the 17 months the United States was in Afghanistan before invading Iraq. On October 7, 2001, less than a month after September 11, the United States began its military campaign in Aghanistan. The United States did not attack Iraq until March 19, 2003. Even after the Iraq invasion, the United States retained its military presence in Afghanistan.

Joy Behar screamed Bush’s weapons of mass destruction charge in Iraq is "a lie! Accept it. Everyone accepts that it’s a lie at this point." Not according to an investigation that found the Iraq WMD case was "a major intelligence failure," not a case of the president’s dishonesty.

The segment began with discussions on former President Clinton’s infidelity issues and what character flaws may disqualify one from the presidency. Behar felt that John McCain’s alleged "anger management" issues are worse, forgetting that Clinton lambasts just about every journalist that challenges him. Behar also suggested McCain’s behavior is "crazy," "aberrational," and "nutsy."

The entire transcript is below.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Here’s an interesting question that Joy actually brought up. What kind of flaws are acceptable in a candidate? Because now, you know, we’re starting to see all this discussion about who did this, and who did this, and who wasn’t supposed to and all this stuff. And are there things that you’re willing to accept knowing that everybody is flawed.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: I think we should look at them kind of like as if you’re dating them. You know what I mean? Like, are there deal breakers in the relationship? You would look at it as if there were a man that would come into your house, date your daughter, you were going to date him, or a woman that was going to come into your home, in terms of a relationship. I think you should think about those deal breakers. I think they’re important.

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Everyone’s got different deal breakers.

JOY BEHAR: The reason that I brought this up is that I was at this dinner party Saturday night. And it was men and women, you know, all over, over 50 I would say. And they were talking about Bill Clinton and his little-

GOLDBERG: Escapades.

BEHAR: -escapades that he had in the White House.

GOLDBERG: Right.

HASSELBECK: Just a teensy one he had, little hiccup in the White House Oval Office.

BEHAR: So, I won’t go into the gorey details of this, but men seem to be, the men seem to be much more against and angry about what he did. And the women, how should I put this? They blew it off. [laughter] And so I was interested in that. The fact that men were much more judgmental of Clinton than the women were. And I thought maybe they were jealous that they, didn’t happen to them, or why else, why else would they be so mean against it. And then I said, well, is that a worse flaw than, say, John McCain supposedly having those anger issues? You know, and we’ve had other presidents, Nixon was a mentally ill person. Everybody seems to agree with that at this point. So how diffi- how much flaw will we, how many flaws will we tolerate?

HASSELBECK: If John McCain has anger issues first of all, I think he dealt with it pretty well considering all that he’s been through. I haven’t seen any-

BEHAR: How do you know that? You don’t know that.

HASSELBECK: I haven’t seen, have you seen him lashing-

BEHAR: I haven’t seen him in psychotherapy. I haven’t seen him in the in treatment show on HBO.

HASSELBECK: He doesn’t go to psychotherapy. He doesn’t need it.

BEHAR: He doesn’t need it?

GOLDBERG: But the, but the question is still says, what is an acceptable flaw? That’s the issue.

SHEPHERD: So you’re talking about something more acceptable than he leaves his clothes lying around on the floor.

BEHAR: Yeah, we’re talking about anger maybe, or crazy behavior, crazy, aberrational nutsy behavior.

HASSELBECK: Infidelity.

BEHAR: Infidelity would be a flaw.

HASSELBECK: In the Oval Office with an intern.

GOLDBERG: You know what? I’m going to, I’m going to-

SHEPHERD: How specifically are you trying?

GOLDBERG: I’m going to point this out again. If you did a vacuum job on that rug in the Oval Office, you could start a new country.

HASSELBECK: Sure, sure.

GOLDBERG: With all that went on in the Oval Office-

BEHAR: Over the years.

GOLDBERG: Over the years, you can-

HASSELBECK: But it doesn’t, does that make the last thing that happened okay?

GOLDBERG: No, but it makes it something that is not new.

HASSELBECK: No, so bad.

GOLDBERG: Okay, so, some people think it’s bad, some people think where else is he going to go? He can’t go down the street and say "hey, hey, I’m not the president really, but come here and let me get some."

SHEPHERD: Well, apparently, he did.

GOLDBERG: So, I’m saying, well, the joke is, it really is, it does go on in the White House. It does go on in the Congress. People have these things that we do. And as we saw with some of the guys during the course of the impeachment, people had to subtly step down because you can’t throw rocks if you live in a glass house. So that’s the question.

HASSELBECK: No you can’t. It doesn’t make it right though.

SHEPHERD: So if you’re talking about the flaws that individually each of us would, you know, not accept it and mine is a big one. What is infidelity? Because that aff- you know, that’s an issue that I go through. So infidelity is one that, like, it’s a character issue, and that’s one of the flaws that I could not accept. So I don’t know if anger is-

HASSELBECK: What about, you know, in terms of specifics, isn’t it, you know, you’re saying John McCain’s anger issue. Is it the fact that Hillary Clinton won’t let everybody see her tax form.

GOLDBERG: She’s not president yet. She’s not the president yet.

HASSELBECK: Her tax records, right, or-

GOLDBERG: What is, what is acceptable and what is-

SHEPHERD: What is, isn’t acceptable

GOLDBERG: What is acceptable, and what isn’t?

HASSELBECK: Like a deal breaker?

GOLDBERG: Yeah.

HASSELBECK: A deal breaker for me is not keeping us safe, not going to the, to the line to make sure that we are safe in terms of national security, in addition to taking care of us on the home front.

BEHAR: Yeah, okay.

HASSELBECK: I think that, that is to me-

BEHAR: But that’s not character flaw. That’s not what we’re talking about. It’s a qualification. It’s different. If I’m-let’s just go with the anger thing for a second. Let’s say, theoretically, I don’t know if he has them or not, that’s what they say. That he kind of has a short fuse, McCain. I don’t think that, that’s a great thing to have when you’re dealing with foreign nations in this kind of a world. It’s a little shaky. To me that’s more scary than, you know, getting some action in the oral off- Oval Office.

HASSELBECK: I think the difference in other countries, is that, you know, John McCain-

BEHAR: Call me wacky!

HASSELBECK: He led, in terms- I think he’s a great, he’s more tactical in terms of dealing with other countries and nations. You know when he led, when he led the whole force with the surge in Iraq, that’s the one thing that went really right there. And I feel like, I felt proud to even know his name to think, yes he’s leaning on his generals. I feel like he’s more tactical dealing with other nations than maybe someone else would be, who doesn’t have experience.

GOLDBERG: Well, he-

SHEPHERD: No, I was just going to say, you know, because I, you know, when you said, like "oh he’s just getting some in the Oval Office." I feel like, and I want to clarify my thoughts. You know, I just feel like infidelity, if you are willing to lie and keep things from your partner, and that’s a commitment that you made before God., and you’re willing to lie, and with hold and cheat, then what makes me think as a person that nominated you into that office, that you’re not going to lie and keep things from me and people in the country?

[applause]

HASSELBECK: Go Sherri!

GOLDBERG: So given that, given that you both believe this, would you say that lying to the country about going to war, sort of balances that out? Because, you know, sometimes, sometimes-

[applause]

HASSELBECK: He lied?

GOLDBERG: Yeah, I, there were no weapons of mass destruction. I’m sorry. Osama bin Laden was not in Iraq.

HASSELBECK: Well, then is Hillary Clinton wrong? Because she approved that choice.

GOLDBERG: Yes, absolutely she was wrong and so was I.

HASSELBECK: They were given information-

GOLDBERG: Hello! Well, I think that we didn’t do enough homework. We didn’t and you know that we should have done more homework, and he-

HASSELBECK: But is that a lie?

[applause]

GOLDBERG: This was a subtle way-yes it’s a lie!

BEHAR: It’s a lie! Accept it. Everyone accepts that it’s a lie at this point.

GOLDBERG: He wasn’t, he was not as forthcoming, and now he says it’s this person and that person, this person, but so would another person. He said, "well, you know, she’s not putting out, so I went and found someone else." The question is, do they- well, that’s what I’m saying. You know, there are times when you kind of got to go well, is this right, when is it okay to you know-

HASSELBECK: We’re not going to find a perfect person. You know what I mean?

GOLDBERG: Well, that’s the point.

BEHAR: That’s the point, though, which is the one, which is the flaw that we will, that’s not a deal breaker? Which is the flaw? That’s what we’re trying to get to.

HASSELBECK: I think poor intention, you know, mal intent, I think that’s something that’s-

BEHAR: Well, that would go with the Iraq War then.

[applause]

HASSELBECK: Well, no, I don’t think there was mal intent there. I don’t believe that. That’s what you believe. I don’t think there was. I think that there was a response based on intelligence that was appropriate at the time and everybody felt that way at the time. There wasn’t one person, including Senator Rodham Clinton who-

GOLDBERG: Let me say, let me say this. Now, when it all went down at 9-11 and he said "we’re going get him." I was like "come on Georgie, let’s go."

HASSELBECK: Right.

GOLDBERG: But he didn’t go where he said we were going. See, that’s where I got, because I woke up the next morning, we were in Iraq. I was like, what? I don’t think we’re in Afghanistan. So, for me-

HASSELBECK: The facts that were provided said "this is where you need to go."

GOLDBERG: Well, but, but just know that we find. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. But we find now that we went places where we didn’t want to go, so maybe she can say, "yeah, you know what? This is not what I thought it was going to be." This is going to, this is going to happen and people are going to change their mind about things. That’s not a flaw.

BEHAR: But that brings us back to which is worse, incompetence or lying? That’s another dilemma that we could face, you know. Because that’s an incompetent move that you were describing in Iraq.