Joy Behar, under her own standards, ought to issue several apologies. Beyond the Rush Limbaugh "terrorist" smear, Behar also made such outrageous charges as labeling the Bush administration "liars and murderers," accused Republican presidential candidates of attending "Klan meetings," and called former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a "Hitler type."
After a commercial break, Barbara Walters opined that Rahm Emanuel could not possibly be a thug. Why? Because he was once a ballet dancer. When Elisabeth Hasselbeck, though distancing herself from Limbaugh’s comments, tried to add some perspective on Emanuel’s Fannie Mae connections, Whoopi Goldberg immediately cut off Elisabeth because they don’t yet "have all of our facts behind us."
The transcript follows.
JOY BEHAR: They’re being attacked already by the right wing, I’ve noticed. Rush Limbaugh is calling him a thug. Did you see that?
BARBARA WALTERS: No, he wasn’t calling him a thug. He was calling-
BEHAR: Yes he did. He said Emanuel was a thug just like-
WALTERS: Well, yes, just like Rahm Emanuel. He’s not calling Barack Obama.
BEHAR: Yes he did. He said "just like Barack Obama"-
WALTERS: Really?
BEHAR: Yes. I don’t have it right in front of me. They’ll get it for me. He called Barack Obama a thug. I’m telling you.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: I think he did really say that.
BEHAR: This is a guy who’s a drug addict, Rush Limbaugh, and he’s calling him a thug?
[applause]
HASSELBECK: Well, you can’t- you can’t- I mean, you can’t do drugs one area and not drugs-
BEHAR: Well, you know, he must have bought a lot of drugs over the years from thugs.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: When you use the word thug, what criteria applies to Barack Obama as being a thug?
HASSELBECK: I’m not defending, look I’m not defending-
SHEPHERD: No, no, I’m just saying.
WALTERS: I’ll tell you what I’ll do for you guys since we don’t have it. We one- you know we have "Ten Most Fascinating People" coming up in December, our yearly show?
SHEPHERD: Yes.
WALTERS: One of the people I’m interviewing, because whatever you think about him, he’s fascinating-
HASSELBECK: Is it Rush?
WALTERS: - is Rush. So I will ask him that question now that he’s heard you here-
BEHAR: If you ask him you can say how can you say he’s a thug when you bought drugs illegally?
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Let me give you-let me give you the quote! Let me give you the quote. "Emanuel is a good old fashioned Chicago thug, just like Obama is a good old-fashioned Chicago thug." That is the quote.
WALTERS: I will ask that. So Rush you have now heard that is one of your questions. There are plenty of time to think of the answer.
BEHAR: Apologize. He needs to come to apologize.
GOLDBERG: Well, there’s- there’s a lot of things- there’s a lot of stuff that he could have said. There are a lot of things he could have said talking about his disagreement or his anger. To call him a thug, is a very- is kind of- because you know, thugs are basically lawbreakers.
HASSELBECK: Well, here’s what happens. I think you- what happens I think when anyone says something like that, you’re distracted from the issue. People have issue with Rahm Emanuel because he, you know, he was an arm twister and he had sort of strange politics-
GOLDBERG: But yeah, so did LBJ. I mean it’s just- that’s what politics is. He’s not a thug.
BEHAR: Does the name Cheney ring a bell?
[...]
GOLDBERG: So Barbara, you wanted to talk a second on Rahm Emanuel?
WALTERS: Yeah, who is going to be the new chief of staff to Barack Obama, whom Rush Limbaugh you said called a thug. I have special feelings about him because Rahm Emanuel went to my alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College, and wanted to be a ballet dancer. That’s quite a thug. I rest my case.
SHEPHERD: Yeah, thug and ballet don’t go together.
HASSELBECK: No, but this is a guy who is an arm twister, is somehow dancing himself away from the idea that people don’t want to recognize he was their director of Freddie Mac when all of this fraudulent loaning was going on.
GOLDBERG: You know what? I’m going to go away from this because this is a discussion that isn’t going to get us anywhere until we all have our facts behind us. So the word, thug, however, I think is what everyone is objecting to.
