Wednesday’s edition of The View featured an exercise in being unable to temper expectations to confirm with the reality and over reacting for political points. America was almost a full year into President Trump’s second term in office and the ABC co-hosts were still stuck in 2016 in terms of gripes about Trump - the man who’s crassness helped get him elected - being ‘unpresidential.’ What did he do this time? Well, he flipped off a union autoworker who flung an insult at him.
In the soundbite shared by Behar, someone could be heard allegedly calling him a “pedophile protector” and Trump reacting by initially pointing his index finger at the man before a blurred out hand appears.
“And Trump flipped him the bird a couple of times and used the "F" word on him. That is not what I call presidential!” Behar exclaimed. “In my lifetime, and that goes back to Jefferson, I have never heard a president use the ‘F’ word or flip the bird on an American citizen, a person, a person!” she howled in disgust.
Behar would later add that what she saw was “We've never seen anything like this! It's so obnoxious! Horrible!”
Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin have a collective meltdown over Trump flipping the bird to a heckler. pic.twitter.com/XkZLhMGVxd
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 14, 2026
Chronically racially aggrieved co-host Sunny Hostin chimed in to inject from racial juxtaposition by invoking former President Barack Obama:
HOSTIN: Can you imagine if President Obama did that?!
BEHAR: Oh, they’d have him in jail!
HOSTIN: He got flack for wearing a beige suit, for wearing a tan suit. Can you imagine if President Obama did that? This is the least-presidential person to hold office in our lifetimes!
Of course, they were both engaging in some revisionist history since other president had flipped people the bird for various reasons.
President George W. Bush had his one-finger victory salute he gave to a camera before an interview. And Obama was accused of giving the gesture to Hillary Clinton during a public engagement on the campaign trail in 2008.
The View was clutching their pearls over Trump flipping the bird to an autoworker, but back in 2020 they didn’t have anything to say about then-candidate Biden threaten to physically attack an autoworker who confronted the him over his Second Amendment rights. “Don't tell me that, pal, or I'm going to go out and slap you in the face,” Biden said.
Biden also told the autoworker that he was “full of shit” and “a horse’s ass.”
Back on Wednesday’s show, moderator Whoopi Goldberg interrupted Behar and Hostin to go to a commercial break but did so with an ominous declaration: “And it is our responsibility to make the change. That's all we have to know. It is our responsibility to make the change. We know what he is. We know what he was.”
Trump was not up for reelection, so what did she mean by saying we needed “to make the change?” The View has been using a lot of inciting rhetoric lately.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
January 14, 2026
11:09:58 a.m. Eastern(…)
JOY BEHAR: I saw this tape of – or what ever it was – of Trump talking to The Washington Post and this auto -- United Autoworkers line worker.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Yes.
BEHAR: Said to him, yelled out, called him a pedo – um –
SARA HAINES: Protector.
BEHAR: Protector. Do you have the video? There it is.
[Cuts to video]
[TMZ video of President Trump being heckled and flipping off someone off camera]
[Cuts back to live]
BEHAR: And Trump flipped him the bird a couple of times and used the "F" word on him. That is not what I call presidential! In my lifetime, and that goes back to Jefferson, I have never heard a president use the "F" word or flip the bird on an American citizen, a person, a person.
SUNNY HOSTIN: Can you imagine if President Obama did that?!
BEHAR: Oh, they’d have him in jail!
HOSTIN: He got flack for wearing a beige suit, for wearing a tan suit. Can you imagine if President Obama did that? This is the least-presidential person to hold office in our lifetimes!
BEHAR: We've never seen anything like this! It's so obnoxious! Horrible!
[Crosstalk]
GOLDBERG: I want to end this.
BEHAR: Oh, she has to -- go ahead.
GOLDBERG: I just have to end it for now. We'll be back.
It is what it is.
BEHAR: Oh.
GOLDBERG: And it is our responsibility to make the change. That's all we have to know. It is our responsibility to make the change. We know what he is. We know what he was. People are coming into stuff plate and come into it early. Doesn't matter. We are where we are and we know what we need to do. And I know what I need to do right now and so we'll be right back.
(…)
