The liberal ladies of ABC News’s The View were getting really bad at hiding their disdain for the lives of President Trump and his supporters. During Monday’s show, none of the cast members gave a full throated condemnation of comedian Amber Ruffin after she called everyone in the Trump administration and Trump’s supporters sub human. Instead, they whined that the White House Correspondents Association axed her from their dinner, suggested they deserved to be dehumanized, and invited Ruffin on The View to do her set.
Before defending Ruffin, they played this edited together soundbite to highlight Ruffin calling the Trump administration “murderers” and denying their humanity (Click “expand”):
They're not 100 percent interested in being like, ‘ha, you're here, look at your stupid head. You’re burned.’ I care, like, you're kind of a bunch of murderers. So, like, they were like, ‘you need to be, you know, equal and make sure that the, that you give it to both sides and blah, blah.’ I was like, ‘there's no way I'm going to be fricking doing that, dude.’
[Transition]
I think it that just runs on Trump hurt badly. And then it trickles down to everyone who is around him. Because y'all also guilty. So, I think it just, they got their feelings hurt. But it want the false equivalency that the media does. They want that. It feels great. It makes them feel like human beings but they shouldn't get to feel that way because they're not.
According to Ruffin, it’s a “false equivalency” to view those on the right as “human beings” “because they’re not.”
Yet, as the show returned to their live shot, their far left audience applauded Ruffin and co-host Sunny Hostin could be heard laughing. When the camera finally showed her face, Hostin had a huge smile.
Hostin lamented that the WHCA ditched Ruffin. She equated it to them “capitulate[ing]” to a “bully.” “I mean, it just seems to me that when you capitulate and give into a bully, that bully will continue bullying you. It's like the schoolyard bully,” she sneered. “If he takes your lunch one day, he's going to take your lunch again.”
“And when you talk about false equivalency, there is a false equivalency,” Hostin defended Ruffin’s dehumanization of people on the right. “She's a comedian, she’s not a journalist. And I think it's a time-honored tradition. And I think – I know Eugene Daniels very well. I think he made the wrong call. I think he capitulated just like Chuck Schumer did.”
Fake Republican Ana Navarro refused to condemn Ruffin’s dehumanization of the people in what she purported was her political party. Instead, she lamented that Ruffin wouldn’t be able to dehumanize them at the dinner.
“I’m very disappointed, first of all, because Amber Ruffin is really funny. Also, because Amber Ruffin is a black, woman, and queer,” she boasted. “And I think these are communities that feel that we're being erased. That, you know, we're under attack. And so I think, you know, having her there would have had a great significance.”
Navarro actually decried the WHCA for “capitulating” to Trump, someone who wanted to be seen as human, and lamented that they “legitimized” him. “And so, I think it's very disappointing to see all of these institutions bending a knee and giving in to the bully that is never going to give up bullying you because you just embolden and legitimized them,” she bemoaned.
Laughably, Navarro also suggested that the media were the “people are the ones that have to show fearlessness and guide us out of a very dark time.”
It was Navarro who was the one to speak out and invite Ruffin onto The View so she could tell her dehumanizing material, which got a huge applause from the studio audience and support from moderator Whoopi Goldberg:
NAVARRO: She should come and do it here.
[Applause]
GOLDBERG: Amber, you've been invited!
For her part, Goldberg chided the WHCA, arguing that you wouldn’t know what she was going to say until she said it. “I do want to say that when you chop up a comedian, whatever you think the median's going to do, until they do it, you don't know what they're going to do,” she huffed.
Goldberg went on to claim, without explanation, that Ruffin getting canned was “another hack at free speech.” She also seemed to insist that Trump and his supporters deserved to be dehumanized. “And if you can't take the heat, then you should not have started this fire,” she proclaimed.
Pretend independent Sara Haines only supported the WHCA distancing themselves from Ruffin because the show didn’t seem funny. “So, I think in hearing the direction she was going, this wasn't going to be a fun, like, throwing it out at everyone in a room,” she said. “I would prefer it to be funny and it sounds like this was going to be a tinderbox.” Haines didn’t condemn Ruffin’s dehumanization.
Faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin did admit that her knee jerk reaction was to assume the WHCA “were being a bunch of cowards, but then I watched that.” She supported the WHCA ditching Ruffin because the most important thing for the media right was to “be able to show that they can objectively, without fear or favor, cover this administration. And objectively is the keyword.”
“And for a lot of Americans when there's record high distrust in the media, if you have them sitting in a room with somebody who basically said Trump administration officials are subhuman, they're a bunch of murderers, it adds to distrust in the press. It comes off as kid of a tacit endorsement of what she’s saying.,” she added, but still no full throated condemnation.
The View’s backing of dehumanizing rhetoric came less than a year after two assassination attempts on President Trump. There had also been attempts on the lives many Republicans and conservatives, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his family.
NewsBusters did a roundup of The View’s most dangerous and incendiary rhetoric from 2024, including when they refused to tone down the type of anti-Trump rhetoric that led to the attempts on his life. Goldberg also attacked Trump's granddaughter for humanizing him at the Republican National Convention: "I know his grandchild was up on the thing and they're trying to humanize him and change your idea about who this guy is. Don't fall for that!"
When NewsBusters reached out to The View, asking if the cast members saw Trump and his supporters as human, they did not respond to the request for comment.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
March 31, 2025
11:16:49 a.m. Eastern(…)
AMBER RUFFIN: They're not 100 percent interested in being like, ‘ha, you're here, look at your stupid head. You’re burned.’ I care, like, you're kind of a bunch of murderers. So, like, they were like, ‘you need to be, you know, equal and make sure that the, that you give it to both sides and blah, blah.’ I was like, ‘there's no way I'm going to be fricking doing that, dude.’
[Transition]
I think it that just runs on Trump hurt badly. And then it trickles down to everyone who is around him. Because y'all also guilty. So, I think it just, they got their feelings hurt. But it want the false equivalency that the media does. They want that. It feels great. It makes them feel like human beings but they shouldn't get to feel that way because they're not.
[Cuts back to live]
[Applause and laughter]
[Sunny Hostin laughs]
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: You know, it's a funny thing; free speech.
SUNNY HOSTIN: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: What do you think about the decision to drop her?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: So, at first, I thought the White House Correspondent Association were being a bunch of cowards. But then I watched that.
And the most important thing that journalists need to do in this moment is be able to show that they can objectively, without fear or favor, cover this administration. And objectively is the keyword. And for a lot of Americans when there's record high distrust in the media, if you have them sitting in a room with somebody who basically said Trump administration officials are subhuman, they're a bunch of murderers, it adds to distrust in the press. It comes off as kid of a tacit endorsement of what she’s saying.
And I think it's important to highlight good journalism. My worry is without having a comedian all together, that that will fall by the wayside and fewer people will tune in.
SARA HAINES: Why would they even go? I do for the funny part.
FARAH GRIFFIN: I actually support the decision and I worked with most of the people in the White House Correspondents Association. Eugene Daniels is a very serious journalist and I think it was actually the prudent decision.
GOLDBERG: Okay.
HOSTIN: I disagree. I mean, it just seems to me that when you capitulate and give into a bully, that bully will continue bullying you. It's like the schoolyard bully.
[Applause]
If he takes your lunch one day, he's going to take your lunch again.
And so, this White House has taken control of the White House Correspondents Association, many of its duties, including who's going on in the press pool. Now, they're rearranging the seats in the briefing room so that legacy media is going to be in the back and some right wing podcaster is going to be in the front.
I think you stand united as a press corps and you do things you've always done. I mean, this has been an association since 1921.
And when you talk about false equivalency, there is a false equivalency. She's a comedian, she’s not a journalist. And I think it's a time-honored tradition. And I think – I know Eugene Daniels very well. I think he made the wrong call. I think he capitulated just like Chuck Schumer did.
FARAH GRIFFIN: It was unanimous.
GOLDBERG: Right.
ANA NAVARRO: You know, I'm very disappointed. I’m very disappointed, first of all, because Amber Ruffin is really funny. Also, because Amber Ruffin is a black, woman, and queer. And I think these are communities that feel that we're being erased. That, you know, we're under attack. And so I think, you know, having her there would have had a great significance.
And also because this doesn't come in a vacuum. Right? It comes after attack after attack on the press. And after we have seen media capitulating to him and corporate America capitulating to him and law firms capitulating to him. And so, I think it's very disappointing to see all of these institutions bending a knee and giving in to the bully that is never going to give up bullying you because you just embolden and legitimized them.
And it goes back to your point. We can't look at the institutions. We've got to look at the people. Because everybody else in the institutions, academia, media, all of these things, are afraid. But the people are the ones that have to show fearlessness and guide us out of a very dark time.
SARA HAINES: I know that White House Correspondents Association is separate from the administration, but I'm guessing in general you don't want to, like, blow the place up when you show up. I was surprised they invited a comedian because his presidential run, Donald Trump started as a joke was made at his expense by President Obama at the time. I just don't think this is an administration with a lot of sense of humor.
So, I think in hearing the direction she was going, this wasn't going to be a fun, like, throwing it out at everyone in a room. That's why a lot of comedians work as hosts when it comes to Oscars. They go after everyone. I would prefer it to be funny and it sounds like this was going to be a tinderbox.
FARAH GRIFFIN: And we should note, the Trump administration is boycotting the dinner, they’re not attending. And also, Eugene Daniels, who’s the president of WHCA, is a black gay man himself. So, there’s representation that’s going to be there. And he’ll be chairing it and MCing the event. But they're focusing, they’re saying, on journalism, rather than the comedic event.
NAVARRO: What do you think of the comedian?
GOLDBERG: As one who is often told: ‘Listen, you can’t come through this; we can't have you here doing this.’ You know, people make the decisions they make.
I do want to say that when you chop up a comedian, whatever you think the median's going to do, until they do it, you don't know what they're going to do. The pre-chop of this is just another bad move in my mind because we are already seeing people being stopped from saying what they think. One of the great things about being an American is you can say anything. Anything. And if you can't take the heat, then you should not have started this fire.
This is not, you know, you know who Amber Ruffin is. Something you said earlier today, you knew who she was, you know the kind of humor she does, and you know she doesn't go tiptoe lightly. So, for y'all to have I invited her and then going “uh oh, uh oh, we should stop that,’ seems to be, for me, another hack at free speech. And that, that makes me more uncomfortable than anything.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Can I ask one thing though?
GOLDBERG: Yes, got to do it quick though.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Cause it wasn't a comedic bit there. I was very surprised to hear her say sub humor and you're murderers. Maybe say, ‘You’ve had actions that I don’t think are humane, or I think you’ve contributed to death.’
GOLDBERG: But when you're talking to an interviewer, you're not doing your show. You're answering a question. So, yeah, she is very funny.
HOSTIN: It might have been funny.
GOLDBERG: It might have been much funnier than anybody thought.
NAVARRO: She should come and do it here.
[Applause]
GOLDBERG: Amber, you've been invited! We'll be right back.
