Walters: 'Hooray' for Pelosi; Rosie Rebukes Bush's Praise of Hero & Urges Impeachment

On Wednesday's The View, the morning after the State of the Union address, Barbara Walters oozed about how it was a “treat to see the first female Speaker of the House” as she hailed Nancy Pelosi with a hearty fist-raised “hooray” while Rosie O'Donnell sang “I am woman, hear me roar,” O'Donnell denounced Bush for praising the subway hero when he sends Americans “to die in Iraq,” Joy Behar charged that Bush's insistence on the surge in the face of public opposition means the U.S. is “not a democracy anymore” and that led O'Donnell to urge Bush's impeachment.

O'Donnell's chastisement of Bush for daring to pay tribute to Wesley Autrey: “I think it's interesting, too, that he wants to hail this hero in New York, who is obviously a great man, who saved a stranger's life. One man's life, worth it. But he sends 20,000 new Americans over to die in Iraq.” O'Donnell soon asserted that “someone, I believe, should call for the impeachment of George Bush” so “the world knows that the nation is not standing behind this President's choices, that the nation, a democracy, feels differently than the man who is leading as if it were a dictatorship, and that we represent this country, he does not lead as a monarch.” Behar chipped in: “Amen.” (Noel Sheppard's earlier NewsBusters item highlighted O'Donnell's call for Bush's impeachment.)

Video clip #1, of Walters and O'Donnell gushing over Pelosi (38 seconds): Real (1.1 MB) or Windows Media (1.3 MB), plus MP3 audio (200 KB)

Video clip #2, of O'Donnell urging Bush's impeachment (1:25): Real (2.5 MB) or Windows Media (2.8 MB), plus MP3 audio (600 KB)

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth provided a transcript of the relevant exchanges during the “hot topics” segment of the January 24 edition of the ABC daytime show, The View:

Rosie O'Donnell: "You were watching the State of the Union?"

Barbara Walters: "I was watching the State of the Union."

O'Donnell: "Of course you were. You're a good American."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "We're so exciting, aren't we?"

O'Donnell: "What did you think?"

Walters: "First of all, the treat was to see the first female Speaker of the House, to see Nancy Pelosi."

O'Donnell: "Yes."

[applause]

O'Donnell: "Very exciting for the country, for women, thrilling."

Walters: "I must say, the most dramatic moment, you [Elisabeth Haselbeck] and I both felt, was when the President came out, turned around, you know, she's sitting behind, shook hands with her and said, 'Madame Speaker.' Hooray!" [Walters claps and raises fists]

O'Donnell: "And all of a sudden, women across America, [singing Helen Reddy song] 'I am woman, hear me roar in number too big-"

Walters: "That's your ballad for today."

Seconds later:

Joy Behar: "Also, 'In conclusion' was my favorite [tech difficulties] when he said that."

O'Donnell: "It was a long speech, right? Very long."

Walters: "Didn't you also wonder, Elizabeth, didn't you also wonder what she was wearing?"

Hasselbeck: "Yes, I was wondering. I thought she looked incredible. I thought Hillary Clinton, Senator Clinton also looked pretty good, too. They had a shot of her. I thought she looked gorgeous. But I thought he seemed to be a man of just incredible fortitude last night like he, it was a chilly environment, obviously, like walking in there when the country's been pretty much against him, and I thought he did an incredible job, and he admitted the fact that it's a difficult situation right now in Iraq, and I felt sort of that things were more unified."

Behar: "Didn't you feel he was a little desperate, a little desperate?"

Hasselbeck: "I didn't sense [desperation] in him. I sensed confidence in him."

And a bit later:

O'Donnell: "I thought it was interesting. I watched it when I got home on TiVo, you know, with the list fast forward button. But I thought it was interesting that he's talking about health care and, you know, where were these ideas six years ago, number one? And number two, had we not spent $800 billion invading Iraq, we could have fixed all the issues he spoke about in the first two hours."

Behar: "But his answer is, you know, we needed to go. That's his answer, but we don't agree."

O'Donnell: "I think it's interesting, too, that he wants to hail this hero in New York, who is obviously a great man, who saved a stranger's life. One man's life, worth it. But he sends 20,000 new Americans over to die in Iraq. What is the difference between-"

Hasselbeck: "I don't think he's sending them over there to die."

O'Donnell: "Wait, okay, three thousand are dead in America, three thousand Americans who, if they were on a subway station, he would hail their surviving, right?"

Hasselbeck: "He is hailing and showing incredible respect for those soldiers who have fallen, too, don't you think?"

O'Donnell: "He's saying to give a chance. I'm like, we've given you a chance. We've given you nearly four years and three thousand American lives. Enough, sir. Enough."

[applause]

Hasselbeck: "I thought he was pretty wise in his choice of words when he said, you know, this may not be the war that we began, that we started in Iraq, but it's the war we're in."

Behar: "Thanks to him. Thanks to him."

Hasselbeck: "How do you feel about that, though? I mean, don't you feel as though this is true, now we kind of, we're there right now, okay-"

Walters: "That's the argument, Elisabeth. That is the argument. We are there, and do we send more troops, which is what you're talking about, or do we try to find an alternative that was the Baker report that gave some options? This is the debate that's going on in this country, and will continue to."

Behar: "It doesn't seem to be a debate. It seems to be that everybody's against the surge, and he says I'm the decider, I'm doing it."

Walters: "Well, everybody isn't. Elizabeth isn't."

Behar: "No, but the Congress-"

O'Donnell: "He has lower approval ratings than Nixon at the height of the Watergate scandal."

Hasselbeck: "However, last night, a CNN poll had him, three-quarters of the people in America had a positive reaction to his speech last night. So I think that says a lot, too."

Behar: "That's momentary."

Hasselbeck: "So is every poll."

Behar: "It's momentary."

Hasselbeck: "So is every poll."

Behar: "But, yeah, I mean, if the country is against the surge, if the Congress is against the surge, are we going to call ourselves a democracy when the President makes the decisions without the people? It's not a democracy anymore."

Walters: "Let us also see what the Congress does. There are people who are saying that the Congress is talking but hasn't done anything."

O'Donnell: "You know what I think the Congress should do? And this, I'm sure, will make me in some sort of celebrity feud or AOL poll, but someone, I believe, should call for the impeachment of George Bush to let the world know-"

[applause]

O'Donnell, after asking others to let her finish her point: "... I think we should do it so the world knows that the nation is not standing behind this President's choices, that the nation, a democracy, feels differently than the man who is leading as if it were a dictatorship, and that we represent this country, he does not lead as a monarch."

Behar: "Amen."

[applause]

O'Donnell: "And that's what I think, even if he doesn't get impeached, that we should call on it to tell the world we are against his policies."

Hasselbeck: "I just think it could be pretty dangerous when you're in the middle of a war to call for the impeachment of your leader. I think that we have to think about the long-term effect-"

Walters: "And the turmoil and the trial and the-"

O'Donnell: "I'm saying someone should call for it to be in the history books. Someone should stand up and say, 'When democracy was dying, I, Senator, said I am against this, I am against what he is doing.'"

Walters, drowned out partially by applause : "-who are saying that. They are saying that."

O'Donnell: "But to call for an impeachment is a political statement from the people they represent. Isn't there some Senator brave enough to stand up and say it?"

Hasselbeck: "I think instead of wasting the time just doing it as a statement, they should focus on how we're going to have a proper long-term exit from Iraq and keep our country safe."

O'Donnell: "Right, but we should impeach the President because he had an affair."

Behar: "Well, that was then."

[applause]

[crosstalk]

Walters: "...Without renewing it again, it was because he was lying, you know, anyway-"

O'Donnell: "It was because of a sexual act that he had in the privacy of his own life."

Hasselbeck: "No, I think it was lying to the American people."