ABC’s The View started off their show, March 8, by blasting White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders as an incompetent liar, and eagerly hoping the Stormy Daniels lawsuit would produce physical evidence to impeach President Trump.
For the second day in a row, the talk show hosts obsessed over the scandal and eagerly speculated how it could be used to oust Trump from office.
“Is this going to change anything? Do people care?” host Whoopi Goldberg led the discussion.
Referring to the name President Trump allegedly used in the settlement, Joy Behar joked, “At least we could impeach David Dennison. Let's go after him.”
The hosts went on to bash the White House’s handling of the lawsuit. Behar slammed Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for not being a natural liar like Trump was.
“That girl is an amateur liar. Her boss is a professional,” Behar quipped. At Meghan McCain’s frustrated sigh, Whoopi stepped in to save Behar.
“She's not a good liar is what you're saying,” she tried to get Behar to clarify.
The host willingly obliged. “She's not good enough of a liar. Like out of the mouths of babes comes the truth, you know. It was like almost like painful to watch that,” Behar snarked.
Guest host, ABC News journalist Deborah Roberts agreed it was “painful” to “even talk about” because of the “ick factor:”
“When my son is having breakfast in the morning and we're hearing ‘the president and the porn star’ it just makes me feel icky. And I feel like as a journalist too, having to wallow in the mud in this tabloid story is just so uncomfortable. But I get it,” she grimaced.
But McCain reminded the table that Trump wasn’t the first president to have these kinds of allegations brought against him and put the White House in a disreputable light.
“Not to gross you out, Deborah, but as I’ve seen on this show, I found out what oral sex was because of Bill Clinton so I don't think it's exactly new territory on how tawdry things are,” McCain slammed.
But host Sunny Hostin hoped there would be physical proof of an affair between the president and the porn star.
“They allege that there are some emails perhaps, some images that they still have. I think people will start to care when they see perhaps…” she began to say.
“Images come out, all bets are off!” Whoopi gushed.
Behar revealed she hoped there would be images because those would be the “smoking gun” needed to impeach Trump:
What you need is a smoking gun of some sort. Adam Schiff, I was telling you in the makeup room, Adam Schiff was here last week and I said ‘Are we going to get this guy?’ and he said ‘Remember it took the tapes to get Nixon and it took a blue dress to get Clinton’ so it's not that easy to get.
Behar has talked about finding ways to impeach the president many times before in the past two years on The View.
In April of last year, Behar went on a rant, comparing Trump to North Korea’s dictator, calling for “the menace” to be impeached. Again that month, she compared Trump’s actions to Obama’s, complaining that the former president would’ve been impeached already if he acted in the same way.
Read the full transcript below:
ABC’s The View
3/8/2018
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So, is this going to change anything? Do people care? Where are we?
JOY BEHAR: I think -- at least we could impeach David Dennison. Let's go after him.
SUNNY HOSTIN: It's been reported that Trump was very, very upset with Sarah Sanders for basically confirming the fact that an arbitration happened and that this NDA does exist. I think people are starting to care more about this because Stormy Daniels has become somewhat of a character, somewhat of a personality. I think people are following the story and, let's face it, if she got the $130,000 and she's allowed to talk, does that mean that illegal campaign finance laws are going to be brought into this, was this an illegal transaction?
BEHAR: And he was involved in hush money.
HOSTIN: And that he was involved in it. I think people are starting to care a little bit.
BEHAR: Can I just say one thing about her? That girl is an amateur liar. Her boss is a professional. You know, she can't --
WHOOPI: She's not a good liar is what you're saying.
BEHAR: She's not good enough of a liar. Like out of the mouths of babes comes the truth, you know. It was like almost like painful to watch that.
DEBORAH ROBERTS: But it also is just sort of painful to even talk about it. I feel like the ick factor. You're saying people are starting to care and I wonder though. When my son is having breakfast in the morning and we're hearing the president and the porn star it just makes me feel icky. And I feel like as a journalist too, having to wallow in the mud in this tabloid story is just so uncomfortable. But I get it.
HOSTIN: But its his mud.
MEGHAN MCCAIN: Not to gross you out, Deborah, but as I’ve seen on this show, I found out what oral sex was because of Bill Clinton so I don't think it's exactly new territory on how tawdry things are.
BEHAR: Just as bad.
ROBERTS: That's true.
MCCAIN: I will say going forward, the $64,000 question is does his base care. I'm still hedging on no until it starts impacting the bottom line of the economy or the Second Amendment. I will say that Sarah Huckabee Sanders, I really always liked her because she did a really good job for her father's campaign, she actually did the ground game in Iowa when he ended up ultimately winning in 2008. I always thought she was really smart. I do think there are a lot of tenants she's not living by, never complain, never explain, control the narrative. All of these things she's not doing and she’s making it worse.
[cross-talk]
MCCAIN: I do think that there's someone out there that can control the narrative better than what they’re doing right now.
ROBERTS: She goes on and on and she digs herself in deeper.
WHOOPI: She’s tired because how many times can you say, ‘I didn't know. He said no, no -- did he cross the street? I don't think so!’ I think she's now just like -- she needs a vacation.
HOSTIN: Is it the tip of the iceberg because if you read the legal documents, they allege that there are some emails perhaps, some images that they still have. I think people will start to care when they see perhaps --
WHOOPI: Images come out, all bets are off.
MCCAIN: If images come out this show is going to be a real interesting place for me that day. I'm probably going to faint on camera and be like, you know what, it's been a great run here on this show.
HOSTIN: Still images and/or text messages.
BEHAR: What you need is a smoking gun of some sort. Adam Schiff, I was telling you in the makeup room, Adam Schiff was here last week and I said ‘Are we going to get this guy?’ and he said ‘Remember it took the tapes to get Nixon and it took a blue dress to get Clinton’ so it's not that easy to get.
WHOOPI: Also you have to do it within the law. You have to do it within the law.
MCCAIN: Read your sweatshirt. It's Mueller time. Let him take care of it.
[Whoopi stands up to show her sweatshirt. Cheers and applause ]
MCCAIN: Let the investigation play out. The final thing I will say though is any chance of Republicans and conservatives putting anything out policy-wise that in any other administration would take the attention away from these types of scandals, these scandals are just getting worse and worse and is you said we're talking about the hypothetical idea that there are images out there, this is getting worse and worse and they have to start controlling some of this which they do have the power to do.
WHOOPI: The question also then becomes so now that Stormy's in the midst of a storm, what's next? Is she on "Dancing with the Stars"? Does he become a correspondent on ABC or CNN? I mean, where do you see her?
BEHAR: Run for congress, hey.
ROBERTS: That's the thing that's so upsetting about this because at the end of the day it does give a lot of air to her and she is going to probably milk this. She's probably going to get a book deal. She's probably going to start hitting the talk show circuits.
WHOOPI: Who does that sound like? Maybe she'll be on "Big Brother".
ROBERTS: We've seen somebody from the Trump administration on "Big brother".
HOSTIN: Should she be vilified though or made fun of? I mean, yes --
BEHAR: She was a working woman.
HOSTIN: She was a porn star, had this liaison with Donald Trump. I think that people should care that the President of the United States during the campaign allegedly paid hush money right before his election and he had this affair with this woman when his wife had just had their child. Where are the evangelicals? Where are the people of faith, where are the people of family values saying this matters? This matters!
