The View is a show that has, for much of its history, profited off of manufactured outrage. Friday’s broadcast took a similar turn, when they discussed the multifarious “sexism” embedded in liberal favorite Senator Kamala Harris getting “interrupted” by her fellow Senators. Other supposed examples: Reminding her not to interrupt Attorney General Jeff Sessions who was attempting to answer her question, and being called “hysterical” by a Trump surrogate.
After playing the initial clip of Session’s testimony, Joy Behar noted, with a remarkable lack of self awareness, that Sessions, who was forced to rush through testimony given under threat of perjury, needed to avoid getting his “panties in a twist.” Sunny Hostin then proceeded to deliver a frothing sermon on the “stately” Senator Harris and impugn the character of Sessions by suggesting he was lying under oath.
Sara Haines and Behar were next, taking us through a lesson on the sexist etymology of the word “hysterical”, which viscerally was the most intelligent portion of their diatribe, but it left one feeling dumber for having heard it.
The voice of conservatism/sensibility on the panel, Jed Bila, pointed out the blatantly obvious fishing involved in suggesting that interrupting Harris is tantamount to sexism, particularly when she herself interrupts anyone whom she questions. Hostin was livid, saying she only did so when people were trying to “evade the question”.
This statement, combined with Hostin’s previous lurid remarks about Harris’ unmatched “stately” demeanor, lead us at Newsbusters to wonder: does Kamala Harris ever interrupt anyone? A brief scan of congressional hearings yielded the following montage:
Perhaps the most soothing takeaway from this segment on The View is as a reflection of how far our nation has come when interrupting a serially-interrupting senator is considered a major development in 21st century sexism.
This segment of bloviation on The View was brought to you by sponsors such as Philadelphia cream cheese, Maybelline NY, and Tide.
Read the full June 16th transctipt below:
11:12 AM ET
JOY BEHAR: Welcome back. So Attorney General Sessions -- they kept calling him General in those things, and I thought, he is not in the army, why are they calling him General? But anyway, he’s Attorney General. He has been getting grilled a lot in the Russian probe and Senator Kamala Harris really went at him. Watch.
HARRIS: Did you have any communication with any Russian businessmen or any Russian nationals?
SESSIONS: I don't believe I had any conversation with Russian businessmen or Russian nationals.
HARRIS: Are you aware of any communications --
SESSIONS:Although, a lot of people were at the convention and it's conceivable anybody could up to me.
HARRIS: Sir, sir I have just a few moments--
SESSIONS:You let me -- if I don't qualify it, you will accuse me of lying. So I need to be correct as best I can.
HARRIS: I do want you to be honest.
SESSIONS: I’m not able to be rushed this fast, it makes me nervous.
BEHAR: Don't get your panties in a twist, my goodness!
SUNNY HOSTIN: He’s nervous.
BEHAR: Yeah, so the former Trump aide Jason Miller said that she was being hysterical, quote/unquote. Would you--do you think they would ever use the word hysterical against a male senator?
(crowd moans)
HOSTIN: They would never do it, and I know Kamala Harris. I think what’s so offensive us she is the most even keeled stately person that you will meet. She is a former prosecutor and she was using that experience to kind of cross-examine him. Don't we want that?
PAULA FARRIS: Well you want that, but you have to let him qualify, you still have to let them finish he wasn’t done speaking.
HOSTIN: You don’t need to qualify so much when you’re telling the truth. Just sayin’. Just sayin’.
(applause)
FARRIS: But, exactly, I get that too, but in this setting and this climate, the more information the better. The more information the better, so I think you can qualify as much as you need to, and especially considering the source.
HOSTIN: He was trying to use up the time. Because each senator doesn’t get a lot.
SARA HAINES: They don’t get a lot of time so I think they are trying to bang out of it, and the interesting thing about the word hysterical is it’s a word with a female-baiting history from ‘hystericus’ which was once a common medical diagnosis reserved exclusively for women sending them uncontrollably insane sometimes causing-- and they would have to perform a hysterectomy. So it’s actually just unique to a woman and her uterus.
BEHAR: It’s a Greek word, hysterical, hysteria-- guess, which means uterus as in, grab them by the-- like that.
HAINES: (indistinguishable) --- female history.
BEHAR: It's the women. That’s why hysterectomy means uterus. Yes.
JEDEDIAH BILA: There’s a rush though, like, she doesn't -- if you watch her repeatedly, and I have watched her repeatedly, she doesn't oftentimes let people answer the question. That’s a fact.
HOSTIN: She doesn’t let them evade the question.
BILA: No, no. She doesn't let them answer to the point where they’re like, can I answer the question? And I just think you need to be really careful I think in this country or anywhere when you label everything sexist. She is a big girl, she’s smart, she’s confident, she’s capable. I don't need to feel sorry for her in this situation. And I think, when there is real sexism--
HOSTIN: Hysterical is sexist.
HAINES: That example is the worst.
BILA: That's fine, but saying -- do you know how many headline I read? She was interrupted. So what? We all get interrupted at this table.
HOSTIN: They don't do it to men. They don’t do it to men. Not on that committee.
BILA: They interrupt men all the time, and it's hysteria to always label-- there's real racism, there is real sexism there’s all of these ‘isms’. There are real examples of that, but when we rush to say this is sexist immediately all the time or this is racist, I think we demean those incidents in which it happens.
