ABC's The View had a theme on Monday: fully supporting hate-filled comedy against President Trump and his backers. First, they all defended Michelle Wolf's White House correspondents' dinner routine. Then leftist comedian Kathy Griffin came on to emphasize again that she retracts her apology for the scabrous Trump-beheading photo stunt. Everyone on the set supported her. No one represented the view that Griffin was wrong the first time, and then wrong to retract her apology, which now looks obviously insincere and only out of fear for her career.
The gushiest moment came from "Republican" Ana Navarro, who was so effusive in her praise that Griffin ran over to hug her in her chair:
SUNNY HOSTIN: Do you think you went too far though?
KATHY GRIFFIN: No, not now. Not when I see his policies. Also, it was a mask in ketchup -- I wish I’d done with a blow-up doll! I probably could have gotten away with the whole thing with a blow-up doll!
ANA NAVARRO: Kathy, but I think part of it, though was how early into his administration it was. It was just a few months, I think people had hopes that things would change, that he would grow into the presidency. I got to tell you I found it troubling. I found the image troubling. I hated it when a rodeo clown went after President Obama. I hated it when a friend of mine at Univision compared Michelle Obama to an ape and he lost his job so, you know --
GRIFFIN: And the way Trump treated Jorge Ramos, even though he had done things like that, but you’re right --
NAVARRO: But I think the way to hold the high ground –
GRIFFIN: Are you saying I was ahead of my time? I’ll wait, I’ll wait.
NAVARRO: I've told you when I've seen you in the past and I'm so glad to see you doing it, you are a comic. You are a terrific comic with an incredible record. You've been on TV. You've had shows. You've sold out shows. I don't want you -- I don't want your life, your career defined by this stupid moment and I'm so glad to see you're finally putting it behind you and selling out --
GRIFFIN: Oh, thank you. [ Cheers and applause ] Thank you. Oh my God, I wanna hug you!
NAVARRO: – theatres everywhere! Can we get over it?
GRIFFIN: I just wanna live!
Griffin began with "By the way, I take the apology back. F*ck him!" The crowd went wild. "And Don Jr. and Eric, or as I call them, Eddie Munster and Date Rape. Look, I’m not holding back on this family. This president is different and I have been through the mill and so now I’m back on the road. I sold out Carnegie Hall in less than 24 hours.” She also said "I’ve performed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two places Trump has never been and can’t find on a map.”
Griffin claimed after sobbing over her plight, she talked to her mother, who "watches Fox News and thinks that it’s real,” and "I had to spend two hours convincing my mother that I had not been recruited by Al-Qaeda ....I had to tell her, ‘I don’t think they’re taking 57-year-old red-haired Irish-American comedians today....My own mother, for two hours, thought I was in ISIS!”
