During Thursday’s edition of The View, the panel celebrated co-host Joy Behar's 20th anniversary as a co-host on the show. Not surprisingly, Behar had a very specific anniversary present in mind: the resignation of President Trump.
The first part of the show focused on former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s guilty plea for lying to Congress about some dates regarding conversations about a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow. When attempting to lay out the facts of the case, co-host Sunny Hostin butchered two key dates. She claimed that Cohen said “everything ended when Trump became President in January of 2016.” While Cohen did say that in his testimony to Congress, President Trump did not become President until January of 2017.
After the entire panel took shots at Cohen and President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort. Behar declared that “today is a good day for Donald Trump to resign…20 years for me, that would be my gift. That’s my gift. Donald do it for me, okay?” Behar’s plea to the President comes just two weeks after calling on the President to resign because she was “worried about his health.”
The conversation then turned to the possibility of President Trump issuing a pardon for Manafort. After calling Manafort a “traitor to the United States of America,” co-host Meghan McCain said that “if he is pardoned, I don’t know what I’m going to do on this show." Behar jumped in, telling McCain not to worry: “I don’t think he’s going to pardon him. I think he has to save the pardons for his children, frankly.” Behar’s quip caused the crowd and Hostin to erupt into laughter.
Behar and the Trump-hating audience should definitely be careful what they wish for. If President Trump gives Behar her anniversary present, that would mean that Vice President Mike Pence would ascend to the presidency. Behar has no love for him either; once accusing him of suffering from a “mental illness” because of his Christian faith.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Thursday’s edition of The View is below. Click “expand” to read more.
The View
11/29/18
11:04 AM
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Paul Manafort may have been a mole for the White House inside the Mueller investigation this whole time. Is this why you-know-who said in an interview that a pardon is not off the table, and right before we went on air, you-know-who’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about…contact with Russia. Is Trump freaking out because people and things are closing in? Did Manafort play Mueller like a fiddle? Who has the upper hand here?
SUNNY HOSTIN: It is like a soap opera.
GOLDBERG: It is a giant soap opera.
HOSTIN: It is.
JOY BEHAR: I know, he says he’s not going to “The Apprentice” anymore. This is “The Apprentice.”
HOSTIN: It is.
BEHAR: This is the reality show. We’re all trapped in the middle of it.
SUNNY HOSTIN: I got to tell you, this, this news about Michael Cohen, we always knew when Michael Cohen flipped that he probably had some significant information. Now, he’s pled guilty to lying in front of Congress about the Trump Tower plans, that the Trump Tower was going to be built in Moscow. So he said, you know, everything ended when Trump became President in January of 2016. Now we know those conversations continued through July 2017.
GOLDBERG: Well, we knew that then…
HOSTIN: But that means that…
GOLDBERG: …Somebody had to prove it.
HOSTIN: …Michael Cohen lied to the public, to the Congress, and the President lied to the American people about his…
(GOLDBERG GASPS)
HOSTIN: I know. But the thing is…and I’ve, we’ve talked about this before.
BEHAR: Yeah but Trump says…This is what I saw, I saw him two minutes ago…
HOSTIN: Yeah, Trump just spoke.
BEHAR: Going on and on, bloviating on and on because he’s so nervous. But he said that there was no deal, there was no Moscow Trump Tower…
HOSTIN: Yeah.
BEHAR: So it never happened. So what’s the big deal? What do say to that?
HOSTIN: It is a big deal because if it happened, if these negotiations were going on while he was President, it’s precisely what the framers of our Constitution wrote in to protect the American people against because we want to make sure that this President, any President, is not putting his self-interest before the interest of the country.
BEHAR: And is there a smoking gun here, do you think?
HOSTIN: I think so.
BEHAR: What would it be?
GOLDBERG: Smoking buildings.
HOSTIN: There will be documents, you know, negotiation documents. There could be tapes. That’s the funny thing, when people lie to the…to federal prosecutors, don’t they know that federal prosecutors usually don’t even ask questions they don’t know the answer to already?
BEHAR: That’s true.
HOSTIN: Like they have the Federal Bureau of Investigation working for them, the best investigative tool in the world.
ABBY HUNTSMAN: They’re usually asking questions they already have the answers to.
HOSTIN: We always do that. We always do that.
HUNTSMAN: That’s why not having Manafort, I don’t think, is a huge deal for Mueller…
BEHAR: It’s not.
HUNTSMAN: And it also sadly doesn’t surprise me that Cohen has lied to Congress and that Manafort…
(CROSSTALK)
HUNTSMAN: Lawyers, Trump’s lawyers. These are bad guys. It’s not like he surrounded himself with upstanding citizens.
BEHAR: But that’s not what Trump says. Trump says that they’re very brave. That Michael is not brave.
HUNTSMAN: Not Michael Cohen. He called him weak just a moment ago.
BEHAR: Right, the others…because the other ones are not flipping because those are ready to get pardoned.
HUNTSMAN: But there’s also a chance that the public doesn’t even get the results of this report, right? I think there’s this idea that Mueller is going to stand in front of the camera and he’s going to, you know, list a bunch of things that they found but ultimately Mueller gives it to Whitaker. That’s why his role is so important, because Whitaker, the Attorney General, can then decide to just keep it quiet, just give an outline to Congress.
BEHAR: Somebody leaks.
HUNTSMAN: Or release it.
BEHAR: It will leak. Today is a good day…
HUNTSMAN: It will leak.
BEHAR: Today is a good day for Donald Trump to resign. I really believe that.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BEHAR: 20 years for me, that would be my gift.
MCCAIN: For 20 years on “The View.”
BEHAR: That’s my gift...Donald, do it for me, okay?
HOSTIN: It’s really closing in right? I mean, Mueller’s investigation is so methodical…
MEGHAN MCCAIN: I’m sorry, I don’t like working in hypotheticals, we don’t know what we don’t know yet. That’s what Abby, I think, you just said right there. And that we don’t know what happens until Mueller comes out. The thing that makes me the most angry is the idea that Paul Manafort could possibly be pardoned. His relationship with Trump aside, his lobbying firm was nicknamed the torturers’ lobby for spinning foreign dictatorships including governments in Nigeria, Kenya, Zaire, Equitoral Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and the Ukraine. Blood money. He’s a traitor to the United States of America one way or the other. You should not…if you, and like all this other stuff aside, he helped Vladimir Putin. He’s a traitor to the United States of America. If he is pardoned, I don’t know what I’m going to do on this show.
BEHAR: I don’t think he’s going to pardon him. I think he has to save the pardons for his children, frankly
(LAUGHTER)
MCCAIN: Good lord.
BEHAR: Because you can’t…
HOSTIN: He’s got a lot to give…he’s got a lot to give out though.
BEHAR: There’s a lot of kids in the family.
MCCAIN: But there’s rumors right now that’s what’s going to happen and I think President Trump himself said it’s not off the table.
HOSTIN: He said it’s not off the table. Although if prosecutors are smart, they’ll charge him on the state level and then there’s no Presidential pardon for that.
BEHAR: That’s right.
HUNTSMAN: So basically, Whoopi, who has the upper hand? Mueller has the upper hand.
MCCAIN: Great, Sunny. Thanks for that news. I feel better, Sunny. Thanks.
