Comparing our country unfavorably to a totalitarian states seems to be a favorite pastime of Joy Behar and the women at The View. At reports that the Trump Administration was separating families at the border who tried to cross illegally, the hosts freaked out and claimed that this was a “human rights violation” akin to what Hitler and Kim Jong-un did to their people.
In two segments, the panel combined complaints about how Trump treated North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and the administration’s strict immigration policy. Rehashing issues they talked about earlier this week, all of the hosts agreed that Trump showed too much respect for their government by praising Kim Jong-un and not addressing the human rights violations in their country. However, host Sunny Hostin took this to another level, comparing America’s so-called “human rights violations” with the totalitarian regime.
Hostin claimed that human rights violations in our country have “spiraled” out of control under Trump, listing immigration and “unarmed black men” being killed by police as examples of these violations:
You know, I am not surprised by this president sort of extolling the virtues of a dictator because, you know, if you read anything about human rights violations here in our own country, this president, since his presidency, human rights violations here in the U.S. have spiraled. I mean, this is someone who has targeted immigrants, targeted refugees, allowed children to be taken away from their mothers. Black people are at a rate -- unarmed black men get killed at a rate of five times more than a unarmed white person. Human rights violations are occurring right here in our country are unaddressed by this administration. The fact he doesn't care about human rights violations in Korea, why is anybody surprised?
As usual, host Meghan McCain disagreed with Hostin’s assessment and provided the sole level-headed perspective at the table.
I know our country has its issues and all the things you're saying are valid, Sunny but there is absolutely no comparison between the freedom and liberty we enjoy as Americans and what is going on in North Korea. People are being starved, raped, and that's the point of this conversation. There is is a difference between the American flag and the North Korean flag. There is a difference between a North Korean general and the President of the United States of America. If we're going to do this moral relativism, well it's just as bad here, then there is no point of this conversation whatsoever.
Hostin denied she was comparing the two countries, but repeated her same point that these were examples of human rights violations.
“The point isn't that it's just as bad, the point is does this president care about human rights violations around the world? My point is if he doesn't care about the human rights violations that are occurring in this country, then why should he care about human rights violations -- I mean, he emboldened racism by equivocating on white nationalism!” she ranted.
McCain jumped in to call out Hostins remarks as “really beyond the pale:”
‘We are talking and comparing North Korean prison camps where people are raped and tortured and starved and killed with wild dogs and machine guns, to what’s happening in the United States,” she shook her head.
“You’re comparing them, I’m not!” Hostin objected, even though that’s exactly what she did. “The point is, he doesn’t care about human rights violations,” she reiterated.
After cutting to commercial, the panel discussed reports about families being separated at the border for trying to enter the country illegally and asylum seekers being shut out. Not to be outdone with the North Korea comparison, host Joy Behar jumped in to compare our immigration policy to Nazi Germany:
This particular rule was on the books for Obama and Bush, but they didn't enforce it unless there was something horrible that was happening, and this group seems to be viciously attacking these people in some way, and as Americans, people should not tolerate this. This is, like -- this is, like, Germany. I mean, come on, people. Wake up!
Just to hammer home she wasn’t talking about Germany’s current liberal immigration system, she added, “Let me clarify. Germany back then, not now.”
