What a surprise that the ladies of The View are outraged over a new NRA commercial that addresses President Obama’s hypocrisy over having armed guards in schools across America. Discussing the ad on Wednesday, January 16, the women of The View had some harsh words for the "sick" NRA spot.
After playing the ad, the entire cast expressed outrage, furiously talking over one another in a rush to bash the NRA as “nuts." Host Barbara Walters claimed to be particularly offended at the reference to President Obama’s two daughters in the advertisement, failing to point out the true message the NRA was arguing. [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg went so far as to defend President Obama’s hypocrisy over armed guards in schools:
And so to hold them to some sort of different standard like they shouldn't have security is kind of ridiculous and I'm -- I'm just -- annoyed that we can't have this discussion without, you know, being a name calling, an elitist. It's not elitist for your child to have protection when you're the President of the United States.
Apparently Ms. Goldberg agrees with President Obama’s double standard simply because he is president but the average child shouldn’t have the added safety of armed guards in their schools. Perhaps Goldberg is unaware that Sidwell Friends School, which the Obama daughters attend, has armed guards in addition to the Secret Service agents assigned to Sasha and Malia.
For her part, the lone conservative on the show, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, wasn’t so quick to jump on the anti-NRA attack, and claimed that:
I think everyone when they think about their children of course would want them to be protected, to the nines, right? I do think, however, we're losing a big, important chunk in this discussion…We had Miss America on here the other day, the question that she answered at the pageant was do you think it's okay to have armed guards at schools. And she said I don't believe, I'm paraphrasing, that the answer to violence is violence. Well, a guard protecting kids is not violent.
For all their consternation over the NRA ad, the panelists of The View failed to note that polling data show most Americans actually approve of the NRA's call for armed guards in schools.
See relevant transcript below.
ABC
The View
January 16, 2013
11:06 a.m. EST
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: The National Rifle Association is fighting back really hard against the White House calling for tougher gun control laws with an ad that really gets personal. Take a look.
UNKNOWN ANNOUCNER: Are the president's kids more important than yours then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he's just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security. Protection for their kids and gun-free zones for ours.
JOY BEHAR: It's pretty bad. That is pretty bad. They are nuts.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: I was just saying this is something that is not unique to President Obama and his children. Every sitting president has had security for their…
BEHAR: But not every sitting president wanted gun control.
SHEPHERD: Exactly, At least President Obama is considering it, has any other sitting president even considered it?
BEHAR: I believe Nixon if I’m correct.
BARBARA WALTERS: The NRA has called for armed guards at all American schools, which is -- and President Obama's very shortly going to come out with his own suggestions. But the idea -- what offended me is -- I'm looking at you, because I don't know how you feel, Whoopi, but what offended me was using the president's children.
BEHAR: Yeah.
WALTERS: There are -- does that -- there are other ways of doing this without using the president's children--then calling him an elitist.
GOLDBERG: Well, to make -- you know, all of our presidents have security. They just do. It's what we do.
BEHAR: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: And so to hold them to some sort of different standard like they shouldn't have security is kind of ridiculous and I'm -- I'm just -- annoyed that we can't have this discussion without, you know, being a name calling, an elitist. It's not elitist for your child to have protection when you're the President of the United States.
BEHAR: But I thought he was a socialist. Now he's an elitist.
ELIZABETH HASSELBECK: But wait, how about this. How about a conversation instead. I think everyone when they think about their children of course would want them to be protected, to the nines, right? I do think, however, we're losing a big, important chunk in this discussion. And we're losing the point that there is a difference between protective arm and assault arm and so I feel like even with our kids when you are talking to them it's hard because you think guns are bad, guns are bad, well, we had Miss America on here the other day, the question that she answered at the pageant was do you think it's okay to have armed guards at schools. And she said I don't believe, I'm paraphrasing, that the answer to violence is violence well, a guard protecting kids is not violent. So I don’t -- I feel like we're lumping all weaponry into bad gun category.
WALTERS: What this does is obscure the issue.
GOLDBERG: And that's why they do it.
SHEPHERD: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: Because they -- when you start to talk to people individually and say do you think assault weapons are a smart idea to have and they say no because you can't -- all you can do with an assault weapon is assault somebody. You can't -- you can't hunt with it.
BEHAR: You shouldn't really have the same weapons that the police have also. That really -- I think that only policemen in this country should have those type of weapons.
WALTERS: Well let’s hear, it’s going to be very interesting and very important to hear what the president has to say.
BEHAR: And listen can I make one other point. Remember we were talking about those apps yesterday, you saw about those, right, that this company. What about--
WALTERS: People may not have watched yesterday.
SHEPHERD: The NRA made an app for 4-year-olds—
GOLDBERG: Which they said a child 4 and up could use on the phone and learn how to
SHEPHERD: How to shoot. Gun safety.
GOLDBERG: How to use a gun and to be safe with a gun, yes.
BEHAR: But I was just saying didn't apple produce those? How come Apple is off the hook.
SHEPHERD: Apple didn't produce it. No. You can make any kind of app and get it on the iPhone. So Apple didn’t produce it.
GOLDBERG: They don't do it. But you know what, this discussion is going to go on. We're going be talking about this a lot.
WALTERS: We said this yesterday and we’re going to be doing it again.
GOLDBERG: And here we are doing it one more time.
