On Wednesday, ABC’s The View discussed the “very dark vision” Republicans have for America and described traditional values as “ominous.” Goldberg ended with what she thought was part of the “greatness of the U.S.”
Sunny Hostin began the segment by listing the GOPS “very dark vision” of America, via Project 2024, including claims such as “getting rid of education, the Department of Education, getting rid of your overtime pay, making seniors pay more money for prescriptions. I mean the list goes on and on and on.”
Hostin went on to read the foreword of Republican Senator J.D. Vance’s (OH) Book: “we are now all realizing that it's time to circle the wagons and load the muskets in the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.” Sarah Haines quickly asked: “Does he still have a musket?”
But to Haines, the “scariest thing” was when Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said “our collective efforts to build personal apparatus for policy makers of all levels, federal, state, and local will continue.” Haines’ word of advice was to “keep your eyes open because they're trying to say don't look over there while we all know what they're talking about.”
Something else that “haunted” Haines was a quote from Vance’s book where he stated that “cultural norms and attitudes matter.” To Haines, this was referring to “going back to the good old days.” She noted that Vance encouraged people to not “lose sight of those traditional values” which she found “a little ominous.”
The hosts then went on a quick rant concerning “the good old days”:
JOY BEHAR: The good old days were hideous, let's face it.
HAINES: Yeah for a lot of people.
GOLDBERG: For a lot of people yeah.
HAINES: Yeah for a lot of people they were awful.
GOLDBERG: For women they were not great.
BEHAR: For women for nonwhite people, for immigrants.
While they hinted that Vance’s comments had racial undertones, it seemed as though no one remembered that Vance’s wife is Indian-American and they had biracial kids.
Regardless, Whoopi Goldberg weighed in with what she thought was part of the “greatness” of the U.S.:
Putting a country together like this country where you have said to everyone, we want to hear what everyone has to say. We've lost sight of the fact that part of the greatness of the U.S. is the rough and tumble. You know, you and I have to figure out a way to be here together.
Goldberg concluded that “Regardless of what I look like, what I think, you have to live with me like I got to live with you like we have to keep reminding people.” But she wanted to make sure that all “women know what’s going on” because “we need the men to recognize that the women are on top of their stuff. We're trying to help y'all.”
Click "Expand" to view the transcript:
ABC The View
7/31/2024
11:17:00 – 11:20:25
SUNNY HOSTIN: I think what's -- what’s so funny about it is that the hubris with which the current Republican nominee, Donald Trump, had going into this race against Joe Biden and then just picking J.D. Vance which obviously was a poor choice, and thinking he could get away with the American people not knowing about their plans for getting rid of education, the Department of Education, getting rid of your overtime pay, making seniors pay more money for prescriptions, I mean the list goes on and on and on. It's a very dark vision of America and they're trying now to say, we didn't have anything to do with it. Twenty-two people in his administration are part of it.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Do you have the names? Do you have some of the names?
HOSTIN: I don't have some of the names but what I do have --
SARAH HAINES: It's a long list. We don't have time.
SUNNY HOSTIN: But what I do have and I'd like to read very briefly is J.D. Vance's foreword. He writes, “we are now all realizing that it's time to circle the wagons and load the muskets in the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”
HAINES: Does he still have a musket?
HOSTIN: That's what he wrote.
GOLDBERG: That's what's scaring her.
HOSTIN: Oh I’m sorry I misspoke. It's 140 people from his administration. I apologize. 140 part of Project 2025.
HAINES: Well I think the scariest thing is Sunny you always talk about the long game of Republicans have historically done very well at laying the groundwork in local government. One thing that the Heritage Foundation president said after this stepping down of the 2025 person is “our collective efforts to build personal apparatus for policy makers of all levels, federal, state, and local will continue.”
So I think the big thing is keep your eyes open because they're trying to say don't look over there while we all know what they're talking about. A lot of what they already want was implemented in Trump's first – think.
GOLDBERG: Yes.
HAINES: And there’s something that also haunted me in the book, a quote where he -- in J.D. Vance's foreword from the book that Sunny just referenced, he says that “cultural norms and attitudes matter.” Okay. Normal and cultural norms have been wrong a lot in this country and as he said it, it really was saying what we always talk about, going back to the good old days. He's kind of referencing that don't lose sight of those traditional values, he keeps saying, so that was a little ominous as well beyond the musket reference which I just didn't realize that was still a thing.
HOSTIN: It's a thing for him.
JOY BEHAR: The good old days were hideous, let's face it.
HAINES: Yeah for a lot of people.
GOLDBERG: For a lot of people yeah.
HAINES: Yeah for a lot of people they were awful.
GOLDBERG: For women they were not great.
BEHAR: For women for nonwhite people, for immigrants.
HAINES: We’re still working towards really good.
BEHAR: It's always been rough for people.
GOLDBERG: You know, a country is rough.
HOSTIN: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: Putting a country together like this country where you have said to everyone, we want to hear what everyone has to say. We've lost sight of the fact that part of the greatness of the U.S. is the rough and tumble. You know, you and I have to figure out a way to be here together.
HOSTIN: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: Regardless of what I look like, what I think, you have to live with me like I got to live with you like we have to keep reminding people, while we're talking about making sure women know what’s going on -- it's not because women don't, it's because we need the men to recognize that the women are on top of their stuff. We're trying to help y'all. You know?
