Friday at the Hot Topics table, The View panel talked about the only topic the media cares about this week, the ambiguous leaked tape from Trump’s ex-personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and the new claims this morning that Trump had full knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting with a Russian operative in June of 2016. The table eagerly speculated that this was the smoking gun to prove Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. Reading the tweets denying these claims, the View’s Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin scoffed, saying it was audacious that Trump could still call Hillary Clinton “crooked,” even saying it was a “lie” to do so.
Bringing up the new claims, Joy Behar mocked Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for slamming Cohen as a “pathological liar.” “That’s hilarious!” she said, cracking up. She then said the two men take pages from Senator Joseph McCarthy’s lawyer, Roy Cohn. “He was as corrupt as they come. His idea was attack, never apologize, lie, tape and that's both of them. That's Cohen and Trump,” she stated before asking if anything would come of this since there was no audio tape of Trump admitting he knew about the meeting. “How will it hold up in court?” she asked lawyer Sunny Hostin. Hostin, however, seemed to have no doubts that this unsubstantiated claim could be used to prove the collusion case:
Very easily because If you think about it, Cohen wasn't alone in this. Paul Manafort was at the meeting, and Paul Manafort is facing prosecution in Virginia. Let me tell you when you are facing years and years in prison, you flip real quick. If Donald Trump knew about it, I think he would be in trouble and Donald Junior would be in trouble because he testified in front of the senate judiciary committee and said his father didn't know anything about it.
Behar and Hostin speculated that Don Jr. would get prison time if he lied to the committee. “But Donald would pardon him, right?” Behar scoffed. After Meghan McCain emphasized that Cohen was known to lie as well, Hostin argued it didn’t really matter because there were multiple people in that meeting and his statement would only be part of the case. “That's corroboration, and that's how prosecutors build these cases,” she gushed.
McCain sided with the liberal hosts, slamming the Trump team for even meeting with a “Russian adversary” to gather dirt on Clinton.
“When you work on campaigns in politics, people are always tring to offer you research on something. I wouldn't have taken a meeting with Canada let alone somebody with Russia. The idea that we're meeting with a foreign adversary, and like you said, they were even comfortable with, I know that it's not illegal, but it's unethical,” she gushed.
Behar and Hostin desperately tried to argue that this was just another piece for the collusion case.
“Don't you think they’re going to get him on something?” she asked Hostin, appealing to the recent ruling by a judge to allow the claim that Trump’s business dealings with Russia violate the Constitution.
Hostin agreed that could be the smoking gun. “You are not allowed to I guess privately make money based on your position in office, and he has been doing that over and over and over again. I mean it's just unprecedented. There is that,” she said.
The pair continued listing off ways that Trump’s business and private dealings could impact the Mueller probe.
Finally Hostin read Trump’s tweets adamantly denying any knowledge beforehand of the Trump Tower meeting. Behar took offense at Trump referring to Clinton as "Crooked Hillary."
“He dares to call her crooked Hillary still!” she scoffed.
“Still,” Hostin agreed.
“When he is the biggest crook. I mean -- [ applause ] How many times?” Behar said, shocked.
McCain admitted she liked the moniker. “I mean, Joy, I call her crooked Hillary. I do, when I'm talking about Hillary Clinton, I call her that too,” she admitted.
“What do you call him? Lyin' Don?” Behar asked.
McCain admitted she called Trump “the president” but that she still “reacted” to Trump’s nicknames, particularly for Clinton. “When you were talking about crooked Hillary, and they worked during the election. Because I hate Hillary Clinton as you know. But I will say--” she began before Hostin cut in.
“That’s out of a dictator’s playbook!” she gushed. “Say a big lie, say it over and over and over again until people believe it,” she shook her head.
McCain disagreed that calling Hillary that was false, but before the two could fight too much over it, Behar cut to commercial.
