Denial of the southern border crisis hit a new and very dumb low during Wednesday’s edition of The View as ABC co-host Joy Behar openly scoffed at the fact that drugs, specifically fentanyl from China, were coming into the United States over the border. She even suggested those facts were just “Fox News” “talking points,” and demanded Ukrainian refugees be accused of smuggling in drugs too.
The conversation started out about the Biden administration lifting Title 42 restrictions and the predicted influx of migrants entering the country illegally. As co-host Sara Haines was dredging up the fake news about mounted Border Patrol whipping Haitians, Behar claimed reports of caravans were “lies”:
HAINES: What are they doing to make it safer though? Cause the Haitians and the bridge images and the horses coming after people, that was just last fall I thought, or December.
BEHAR: The caravans. Lies.
But earlier this year, ABC had reported there was a migrant caravan that was on its way to the U.S. from Honduras. And in a November report, they reported on a “[n]ew migrant caravan set[ting] off from southern Mexico border[.]”
Behar’s inability to comprehend reality was on full display when she spared with opportunistic former Trump Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham on fentanyl trafficking. “There are bad people who are also coming into this country. China knowing our borders are opening will have Fentanyl coming across our border like crazy—,” Grisham said before Behar cut her off.
“Why does this sound like Fox News,” Behar scoffed with a sigh and co-host Sunny Hostin’s agreement. “Are you spewing like talking points here? Well, where are your numbers? I don’t see stats,” Behar complained.
Since you’re too dim to do the research yourself, Joy, here are some reports. According to a CNN report, “US Customs and Border Protection reported a 1,066% increase in the amount of fentanyl seized in fiscal year 2021 in south Texas … Agents at eight ports from Brownsville to Del Rio seized 87,652 pounds of narcotics, including 588 pounds of fentanyl …” They also noted the chemicals come from China.
And your own network, ABC, reported in 2021 that “As of April, 6,494 pounds of fentanyl were seized by authorities at the border, compared to 4,776 pounds in all of 2020. In fact, fentanyl seizures have been increasing since 2018.”
Addressing why she sounded like Fox News, Grisham apologized for being a Republican: “Because I'm a Republican and I'm sorry about that.” “I lived in Arizona. I saw these things,” she tried to explain before Behar interrupted again with, “How many could you see? You're one person.”
Of course, the audience channeled Behar’s mental capacity and laughed.
After a detour into accusations of racial discrimination in the refugee system by Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg, Behar conflated that conversation with their earlier one about Mexican drug cartels and had a problem with Afghans and Ukrainians not getting labeled as drug traffickers:
BEHAR: The anecdotal evidence that you gave that some of these people are bringing Fentanyl and all those other -- you don't say that about Ukrainians. You don't say it –
HOSTIN: About the Afghans.
BEHAR: -- about western Europeans or the Afghans.
GRISHAM: Well, they’re in the middle of a war.
BEHAR: But why is it that those people are criminals and the others are not?
In their race-baiting detour, Hostin was irate that the Biden administration had denied the asylum claims of Haitians while they vowed to take in Afghan and Ukrainian refugees. In one of her usual pseudo-legal rants, she omitted that the U.S. had standards that needed to be met for asylum and how most seekers are denied.
“So, it seems to me that the law is okay for some people, but not okay for people that look like me. And I don't like that,” she sneered. “But I want you to welcome in brown people also as well, the same way,” Goldberg added.
This braindead take by Behar was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Ensure and Olay. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
April 6, 2022
11:1926 a.m. Eastern(…)
SARA HAINES: What are they doing to make it safer though? Cause the Haitians and the bridge images and the horses coming after people, that was just last fall I thought or December.
JOY BEHAR: The caravans. Lies.
HAINES: What are they doing now to make sure we can handle the influx?
STEPHANIE GRISHAM: There are Democrats--
SUNNY HOSTIN: There are laws in place, everyone.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Yes. Yes.
HOSTIN: Okay? And under U.S. law, a refugee is a person who’s unable to or unwilling to return to his home country because of various reasons. In this country, once you enter the country, you have a right, a legal right because of our Constitution, because of the strength of our laws to ask for asylum.
GOLDBERG: Does it matter how you come in? Does it matter how you come in?
HOSTIN: No, it does not. No, it does not. So, when you say they're coming in illegally, I take umbrage to that, especially because 14,000 Haitians were expelled under the Biden administration. Especially because 76,000 Afghans were --
BEHAR: Welcomed.
HOSTIN: Were welcomed to this country which they should have been, and because this administration is willing to take over 100,000 Ukrainians.
GRISHAM: Which I agree with.
HOSTIN: Which they should.
GRISHAM: Yes.
HOSTIN: So, it seems to me that the law is okay for some people, but not okay for people that look like me. And I don't like that.
GOLDBERG: And me.
GRISHAM: I don't -- I don't agree with that, and I think that that is low hanging fruit.
HOSTIN: It's not low hanging fruit.
GRISHAM: It is.
HOSTIN: It’s just the truth.
GRISHAM: It's not. That's just your opinion.
HOSTIN: My opinion is based on facts!
BEHAR: Why is it okay for Ukrainians to come in, and not these other people running from oppression?
GRISHAM: They are, and we would welcome them if they –
HOSTIN: The Haitian president was assassinated!
GRISHAM: They would come here legally. And I’m telling you.
HOSTIN: That is legal, Stephanie!
GRISHAM: Can I finish?
HOSTIN: Yes.
GRISHAM: There are bad people who are also coming into this country. China knowing our borders are opening will have Fentanyl coming across our border like crazy and 100,000 people a day
BEHAR: [Sigh] Why does this sound like Fox News?
HOSTIN: It does.
GRISHAM: Because I'm a Republican and I'm sorry about that. I’m just trying--
BEHAR: Are you spewing like talking points here? Well, where are your numbers? I don’t see stats.
GRISHAM: I lived in Arizona. I saw these things.
BEHAR: How many could you see? You're one person.
HAINES: Stephanie, I understand what you’re saying. When Vice President Harris went down there she said please stay because right now were not equipped at the borders. And we saw an influx, and they couldn't handle them, they couldn’t even house them. Remember them they were carrying food across the lakes. We had all the imagery.
If you then invite people, and by the way, I love the spirit of it. I say bring them all in. The problem right now is our boat is not at its strongest. The lifeboat is not at its strongest. We're dealing with the highest inflation of 40 years. We're in a war and trying to avoid a World War III.
HOSTIN: So we should just not follow the law?
HAINES: No, it's not that, Sunny. It’s the same thing, if you have a lifeboat, you say, I want to save everyone. Everyone gets on and the boat flips, you save no one. If you can't put your own mask on first, you can't help other people. Right now we're floundering. We’ve got people who can’t--
HOSTIN: So, we should just not follow the asylum law?
HAINES: No, Sunny. You're jumping straight across to a zero-sum explanation. What I’m saying is, even the administration that’s in there right now, not Republican, Democrats said, when they looked at it first hand, we got a problem, and they started to backtrack on things. When they tell me that, I say, ‘wow, there may be some things I don't get about this.’ So, to make it an influx of almost threefold, I don't know if we can handle it right now.
HOSTIN: Then we have to figure out a way to handle it.
(…)
GOLDBERG: Let's not forget this has been an issue for quite some time.
HAINES: Decades and decades.
GOLDBERG: Because the Cuban folks were allowed to come in with no problem.
BEHAR: That's right.
GOLDBERG: Nobody asked anything. We begged people to pick up the Haitian folks who were fleeing before the assassination, before everything else. So, this is an issue that we all have to deal with. Because either everybody is welcome – And I want to be really clear. Sometimes it sounds like we're being very race-based, but this is where we come from. We see things other people don't see, and we see them differently.
If I see 17 people who are white being welcomed in – and it doesn't matter that you are white, you should be welcomed into the country. But I want you to welcome in brown people also as well, the same way.
BEHAR: The anecdotal evidence that you gave that some of these people are bringing Fentanyl and all those other -- you don't say that about Ukrainians. You don't say it –
HOSTIN: About the Afghans.
BEHAR: -- about western Europeans or the Afghans.
GRISHAM: Well, they’re in the middle of a war.
BEHAR: But why is it that those people are criminals and the others are not?
GOLDBERG: We're going to get that music we hate.
HOSTIN: Okay.
GOLDBERG: Either we can come back and talk about it or we go to break.
