During a press conference with the president of Poland to discuss responding to the crisis in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris had one of her infamous and inappropriate laughing fits. But according to the infinite wisdom or intellectual laziness of Sunny Hostin, co-host of ABC’s The View on Friday, Harris was the most qualified and best-prepared VP ever and any criticism of her is “based in racism” and “based in misogyny.”
It was the first topic on the docket and co-host Joy Behar whined that “the right-wing cannot get over” Harris’s inappropriate laughter. “The laugh got them,” she said after shamelessly playing the clip. And what came next was pure gaslighting as they pretended to have never made fun of former Vice President Mike Pence (Click “expand”):
BEHAR: Did you have a problem with any of the way she handled this, ladies? People are talking about it -- I personally think if she was a guy, they would never say it because they made fun of Hillary's laugh, but I don't see them making fun of Pence's laugh or any of the guy.
ANA NAVARRO: Did he laugh?
BEHAR: Well, they don’t laugh very much.
SUNNY HOSTIN: He didn't move the fly that was on his face for, like, an hour.
At one point, Behar had a bout of honesty and admitted that “[t]o be fair, we did make fun of that fly.”
Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham dared to suggest that Harris was “underprepared with some of the questions” or “not expecting the questions” and suggested it could be a staffing issue.
This immediately brought on Hostin’s wrath. She wouldn’t even look at Grisham as she bitterly defended the Vice President from fair criticism:
HOSTIN: What it is they constantly question the qualifications of black women, and that's why people are saying that she's unprepared.
GRISHAM: Oh, I disagree. I think she's a very accomplished woman.
HOSTIN: You can disagree, but that’s the truth of it. So, this is based in racism. This is based in misogyny.
Hostin’s defense quickly devolved into asserting that Harris is the most qualified and well-prepared VP in history.
“And we're talking about a woman that has extensive experience abroad, extensive experience as an attorney, extensive experience as the chief legal officer of one of our largest states in the country,” she declared. “She is prepared, she is seasoned. Abroad she gets wonderful marks across the board, but this is just something that I think happens to women and especially black women.”
Supposed conservative co-host Ana Navarro jumped in to agree and attack Harris’s critics. Dressed as “a big fat rainbow,” she chided detractors by saying that if they think she’s “not serious” or “not qualified, then you should go qualify your heart and qualify your opinions.”
Behar appeared to have an epiphany as she explained that she just realized that the right could be criticizing Harris because the left had ruthlessly criticized 2008 VP nominee Sarah Palin. “We went after her. We were hard on her. We were hard on her, and now the right wants to be hard on Kamala. It’s possible,” she said. “I just thought of that this minute.”
Again living up to “ABC News standards,” Hostin peddled the lie that Palin said “she could see what? Russia from her backyard and all of this nonsense?” “The qualifications for Kamala, they can’t compare,” she huffed.
“People are still angry about Sarah Palin. They're still mad at the Supreme Court for putting in somebody that we didn't – Bork! That we Borked the guy and they're paying us back for that,” Behar’s moment of clarity continued.
This ridiculous defense of Vice President Harris was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Purina and Nature’s Bounty. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
March 11, 2022
11:02:43 a.m. EasternJOY BEHAR: Okay. So, you know, right before the show, President Biden pledged to strengthen America's squeeze on Putin on multiple fronts. He talked about the Vice President's announcement yesterday that the U.S. is sending Ukraine an additional $53 million in humanitarian aid, but this is the moment from her press conference with the Polish president, Kamala's, that the right-wing cannot get over. The right-wing press. Watch this.
(…)
BEHAR: The laugh got them. She went on to say that the U.S. is committed to helping refugees, but some on the right say that this was humiliating.
Did you have a problem with any of the way she handled this, ladies? People are talking about it -- I personally think if she was a guy, they would never say it because they made fun of Hillary's laugh, but I don't see them making fun of Pence's laugh or any of the guy.
ANA NAVARRO: Did he laugh?
BEHAR: Well, they don’t laugh very much.
SUNNY HOSTIN: He didn't move the fly that was on his face for, like, an hour.
NAVARRO: It actually wasn't on his face. It was on his hair.
STEPHANIE GRISHAM: It was in his hair.
BEHAR: To be fair, we did make fun of that fly.
HOSTIN: We did.
BEHAR: To be fair.
GRISHAM: And I don't know that it's about her laughing. Because I agree that would be very inappropriate and that's something they do to women.
I think that she has gone on multiple occasions a little bit underprepared with some of the questions that she's been asked. They asked her a basic question that she couldn't answer. So, I don't know if it's a staff thing. She's not prepared enough. Perhaps she's not expecting the questions. I don't know what it is, but I think that's the issue. It's, like, the fourth or fifth time.
HOSTIN: What it is they constantly question the qualifications of black women, and that's why people are saying that she's unprepared.
GRISHAM: Oh, I disagree. I think she's a very accomplished woman.
HOSTIN: You can disagree, but that’s the truth of it. So, this is based in racism. This is based in misogyny. And we're talking about a woman that has extensive experience abroad, extensive experience as an attorney, extensive experience as the chief legal officer of one of our largest states in the country. And I think this is just much ado about nothing.
We didn't talk about Vice President Pence's -- the right - didn't talk about his handling of the COVID epidemic which I think -- or the AIDS epidemic which I think led to, you know, thousands and thousands of deaths. What they're talking about is her laugh.
She was there as an emissary really, and she wanted to reassure the NATO allies that -- that as Russia steps up its attacks on Ukraine that the United States was going to be supportive. In fact, I think she’s in Bulgaria right now. She is prepared, she is seasoned. Abroad she gets wonderful marks across the board, but this is just something that I think happens to women and especially black women.
NAVARRO: And you're, you know, you're right about that. Anybody who says that Kamala Harris is not a qualified person, that Kamala Harris is not a serious person, really needs to go back and check where that's coming from because if you think a child of immigrants who is from southeast Asia, and has a Jamaican father, who grew up the way she grew up, went to law school and the best law schools, became -- got to where she is, was one of the top prosecutors and asking questions in the Judiciary Committee when she was in the Senate.
BEHAR: Yeah.
NAVARRO: If you think that happened because she's not serious or because she's not qualified, then you should go qualify your heart and qualify your opinions.
But they do this all the time, right? They have an obsession over Kamala Harris laughing. Guess what? She laughs. I think it's a crutch she uses. This was a 50-minute very serious press conference. They always do this. They take the five seconds where she laughs, and they play it over and over and over again. It's not like she spent 50 minutes laughing.
HOSTIN: It was the final question.
NAVARRO: I think they were laughing at the fact that the question had, like --
[Crosstalk]
NAVARRO: I think they were laughing because the question had like eight parts to it.
HOSTIN: And it was repetitive because they had handled that already.
BEHAR: Something just occurred to me because I was watching that movie Game Change last night which is about Sarah Palin.
NAVARRO: Oh, please.
BEHAR: It happens to be running, and during those years, everybody was on her case correctly, I think. She really didn't know what she was doing.
HOSTIN: She really wasn't prepared.
BEHAR: She really didn't, and so maybe this is payback for that. Who knows? I just thought of that this minute. Maybe.
HOSTIN: Well, she wasn't prepared. I mean, she could see what? Russia from her backyard and all of this nonsense?
BEHAR: We went after her. We were hard on her. We were hard on her, and now the right wants to be hard on Kamala. It’s possible.
HOSTIN: The qualifications for Kamala, they can’t compare.
BEHAR: People are still angry about Sarah Palin. They're still mad at the Supreme Court for putting in somebody that we didn't – Bork! That we Borked the guy and they're paying us back for that.
NAVARRO: I do think there's something very particular about Kamala. Look. They don't want Kamala Harris to be the person who's at bat to be the next nominee for Democrats. They want to make sure they undermine her –
HOSTIN: Absolutely.
NAVARRO: --so she doesn't have an advantage if and when that position is open, and she -- and she tries to run for it, and I think it irks them. I think there were aspects about President Obama that irked some people, and yes, absolutely there's a racial aspect to it.
