Joy Behar and Andrew Sullivan Attack Sarah Palin: Is Trig Her Son?

By Noel Sheppard | December 08, 2009 | 10:55

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Palin Derangement Syndrome was on full display Monday evening when HLN's Joy Behar invited the Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan on to trash the former Governor of Alaska.

At issue fully fifteen months after Sarah Palin was thrust into the limelight as John McCain's running mate was whether or not Trig is actually her son.

Behar began the segment: "Sarah Palin may have been coy on the Oprah Show about a possible White House run in 2012. But new poll numbers show she`s a contender. Oy."

This evoked laughter from crew members on the set.

Behar then introduced her guest, and after saying Palin's "people are evil and nasty," the discussion immediately went to the former Governor's mentally handicapped child (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Story Balloon):

Sarah Palin may have been coy on the Oprah Show about a possible White House run in 2012. But new poll numbers show she`s a contender. Oy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY: Have you thought about running for president of the United States in 2012? Have you just thought about it?
PALIN: It`s not on my radar screen right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP
JOY BEHAR, HOST: OK, Sarah Palin may have been coy on the Oprah Show about a possible White House run in 2012. But new poll numbers show she`s a contender. Oy. (Laughter on the set). But while some are coming into the big tent, others are leaving. More and more are saying the right is wrong. Andrew Sullivan Senior Editor at the Atlantic. And author of the conservative sol is one of them. Ok, welcome to the show, Andrew.
ANDREW SULLIVAN, SENIOR EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC: Thanks Joy.
BEHAR: Levi who was just on, he basically indicates and implies that he has a lot on Sarah Palin. Do you think there are other skeletons in her closet?
SULLIVAN: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: You do?
SULLIVAN: I do. I think that the story of Sarah Palin has yet to be told.
BEHAR: The real story.
SULLIVAN: I think this book that she produced is essentially a work of magical realism. I don`t think she has much relationship with reality. I don`t think she has much relationship with reality. And I think at some point, if journalists do their job and if brave people stand up and tell the truth, we will find out who Sarah Palin really is. And we currently don`t know
BEHAR: Well her people are evil and nasty. They are not nice people. They send me nasty mail and everybody else who talks about it. Anything negative about Sarah Palin, they get hit with this stuff. You know.
SULLIVAN: Well, she tried -- she wanted to sue me for even asking questions. Factual questions. I`m not interested in whether she`s a good or bad person. I`m not interested in whether they are evil people around her. I`m interested in truth. What is the truth about this person who was put on the national ticket, having not been vetted in any way, and in which, the press was shut out from having real interaction with her during the campaign and now, she produces a back which is not fact-checked, not vetted, full of obvious errors -
BEHAR: Why is that?
SULLIVAN: That Harper Collins, a major publication has put out without any fact checking what so ever in order to make money. I find the whole thing just bizarre. I find the whole thing of a governor quitting in her first term when she wants to have a career, bizarre. There are so many bizarre questions including this extraordinary story of the birth of Trig, which is, on a basis, extraordinarily hard to believe the way she`s told it. Maybe there is some truth there that we don`t know fully know. Or she`s confusing --
BEHAR: What do you mean the way she`s told it? She gave birth to the baby --
SULLIVAN: You just don`t behave that way? No one behave that way.
BEHAR: Which way.
SULLIVAN: No one is eight months pregnant, thousands of miles away from home, as she says, in a hotel room in Dallas.
BEHAR: Oh, yes.
SULLIVAN: With a special needs child. Wakes up, bolt right up in bed, has a strange sensation low in her belly and tells the "Anchorage Daily News" that her water broke and doesn`t go to the hospital. No one does that.
BEHAR: Oh that`s a very interesting point.
SULLIVAN: Let alone, then give a speech, in her own book she says she gives a speech while she`s having contractions. She tells a joke in the speech.
BEHAR: I see.
SULLIVAN: She says, big laughs, more contractions.
BEHAR: Is no one investigating this? She`s getting a pass on a lot of things.
SULLIVAN: The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) media didn`t do any investigations to the plausibility of this story. But then she gets on two airplanes back to Alaska in labor and the "Anchorage Daily News" -
BEHAR: Now how do you -
SULLIVAN: This is all in the public record, not me.
BEHAR: Yes, yes, yes.
SULLIVAN: The Anchorage Daily News asked the flight attendants, well goodness, how did you let a woman eight months pregnant, whose water has broken according to her, who is experiencing contractions according to her on the place. An Alaska Airline spokeswoman says they were not aware she was pregnant.
BEHAR: So are you saying there`s some kind of cover up?
SULLIVAN: I have no idea, Joy.
BEHAR: So you`re just putting these pieces together.
SULLIVAN: I have no idea. I`ve been trying to make -
BEHAR: Alleging to -
SULLIVAN: I`m alleging anything.
BEHAR: Conjecturing -
SULLIVAN: No, I`m not. Not even conjecturing.
BEHAR: What are you?
SULLIVAN: I am simply saying I cannot believe the story that she`s told.
BEHAR: It just doesn`t make sense to you.
SULLIVAN: Would someone please make sense of this story for me? I mean, that`s all I`m saying. I`ve read this book, I`ve gone out of my mind trying to understand the story. It does not make any sense. I believe in Judge Judy in a way. If it doesn`t make sense, it isn`t true.
BEHAR: If the glove doesn`t fit - you must acquit. Not that?
SULLIVAN: Judge Judy, who knows how to judge
BEHAR: Whether someone`s telling the truth or not
SULLIVAN: Even when -- if you just take a few steps back and say, would you do this. Does this make sense you know?
BEHAR: Look at the way they did the James Frye book, A Million Little Pieces - he was humiliated on Oprah because it was a memoire wasn`t true. And yet this book just slides through.
SULLIVAN: I think it`s Oprah Winfrey`s second Million Little Pieces disaster and will become so over time.
BEHAR: A ha.
SULLIVAN: I think the story is just beginning, Joy.
BEHAR: But the thing about her though is that she could be a contender for the presidency. I mean, she was a heartbeat away the last time and it could happen again.
SULLIVAN: John McCain was pooh-poohing people who said we`re not attacking her. We`re not attacking her. The press is doing our job. Our job is to ask questions. Her job is to answer them. Answer them. Don`t run away. Don`t forbid any press conference conferences. You sit down and answer your toughest critic did. Like Margaret Thatcher did. Like real feminist do who don`t accept double standards in politics. Who go out there and face their opponents and tackle the issues and talk about factual questions.
BEHAR: Well, that`s not happening with her.
SULLIVAN: Why?
BEHAR: Because she`s - she`s not legitimate that`s why -- because she`s not legit.
SULLIVAN: She`s not legitimate and yet the leader of the Republican party.
BEHAR: Well then they better get their act together over there.
SULLIVAN: No but the more she`s criticized the more they love her.
BEHAR: I know, I know. She`s the underdog. They identify. It`s a psychological thing.
SULLIVAN: Joy, I am an old fashioned conservative as much as I really think taxes are too high. I think spending is way out of control. I`d like to balance the budget, I would like to budget our wars, I would like to actually prepare for wars before we invade countries. I believe in a conservatism that is not as crazy as these people are. And we have to fight and take the Republican Party back or take the conservative movement back from these, well, nutcases in some respect.