Former View co-host Rosie O'Donnell will return to the ABC program she angrily left in 2007. According to Variety, the 9/11 truther and denouncer of "radical Christianity" will appear as a guest on the February 7 program. (As of now, this is a one-day-only event.) Apparently, supposedly serious journalist Barbara Walters has no problem welcoming back the woman who in 2007 denounced her own country: "I just want to say something. 655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?" [See below for some of O'Donnell's worst quotes.]
On September 12, 2006, after token conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck raised the threat of "radical Islam," O'Donnell spat back: "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have a separation of church and state." On March 29, 2007, the talk show host promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories on the show: "I do believe it is the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics for the World Trade Center Tower Seven, building seven, which collapsed in on itself."
In a statement, Walters hyped the return of O'Donnell: "I have great affection for Rosie and we have remained in contact throughout the years. I am happy to welcome her back to the program. She is always a lively and engaging guest and a part of the show’s successful history."
Here are some of O'Donnell's most shocking quotes:
"I just want to say something: 655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?...If you were in Iraq, and another country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?"
— Co-host Rosie O’Donnell on ABC’s The View, May 17, 2007. [MP3 audio here.]
ROSIE O'DONNELL: "As a result of the [9/11] attack and the killing of nearly 3,000 innocent people, we invaded two countries and killed innocent people in their countries."
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: "But do you understand that, that the belief funding those attacks, okay, that is widespread. And if you take radical Islam and if you want to talk about what’s going on there, you have to-"
— Exchange on ABC’s The View, September 12, 2006. [MP3 audio here.]
"I do believe it is the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics for the World Trade Center Tower Seven, building seven, which collapsed in on itself, it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved, World Trade Center Seven. World Trade Center one and Two got hit by planes. Seven, miraculously, for the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible....[Asked who was responsible for 9/11, she responded] I have no idea."
– Co-host Rosie O'Donnell on the March 29, 2007 edition of ABC's The View.
JOY BEHAR: Well, the one thing is that Giuliani post-9/11 appeared to be very heroic. But now they're saying that he was not that efficient in helping the people who were the recovery, the responders.
BEHAR: "For what purpose?"
O'DONNELL: "Well, to get it out of there and to have, you know, all of the stu -- but it was all gone. So there was no like metal to test. There was no, there was no-"
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: "Giuliani was involved in the cover-up is that what's going on? I just want to check."
– Discussion of 9/11 the May 14 edition of ABC's The View.
Current View host Jenny McCarthy is an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist. So, O'Donnell should feel quite comfortable.
For more of O'Donnell's greatest hits, go here.
