Token non-liberal Elisabeth Hasselbeck tried to insert some common sense and stated that "some fringe liberals are taking this to a place to where we’re losing sight on the issue here." Behar, who just called the Bush administration, "liars" and "murderers" adamantly denied she’s a "fringe liberal" and said it’s "name calling."
The ladies discussed the Bob Woodruff special, To Iraq and Back, and shifted to the policy of not filming the arrival of coffins at Dover Air Force Base. The transcript is below.
Video clip (35 seconds): Real (1 MB) or Windows Media (1.16 MB), plus MP3 audio (180 KB)
Hasselbeck: "Rosie, I hear you. I agree with you. I'm saying I think the recall on those photos was just a reaction to the fact that people were using them as false propaganda."
O’Donnell: "It's not false propaganda when there are dead human beings inside those coffins."
Hasselbeck: "I'm not denying that."
O’Donnell: "Every other president has met the bodies and attended the funerals."
Hasselbeck: "He should be there."
O’Donnell: "Every other president has. This is the first president that has not."
Hasselbeck: "He should be there."
O’Donnell: "It is a disgrace. This administration is a disgrace."
[Cheers and applause]
O’Donnell: "It’s not democracy."
Behar: "That’s right. I agree with that. I don't want add fuel to the fire, but I don't know what it’s going to take for people to really wake up and understand that they are liars and they are murderers. I’m sorry."
Hasselbeck: "Well, here’s the thing too. I think right now we need to be concerned too, and everybody is saying ‘oh it's early in the time of the election and it’s early to look at anything.’ We need to really pay attention to who our next leader is going to be, because we’re in this war, whether we want to be or not. And whoever's going to take the place of President Bush, they're going to determine our security for the rest of, probably this century. And they need to, I mean, we really need to have a keen eye on this election. It concerns me."
Behar: "In addition to all of this, I don't understand how you can still support this administration. After the Katrina incident, after the incompetence that took place there, after the incompetence and the lying about this war-"
[Applause]
Behar: "I don't understand it. I don't understand it, explain it to me, what is it that you still are backing them for? What?"
Hasselbeck: "I am, I don't believe that I'm in a place right now that I was three years ago in terms of this administration."
Behar: "OK. Alright, alright."
Hasselbeck: "I believe that I have a more discerning eye in terms of what's happening in this war. But I also feel as though some, you know, fringe liberals are taking this to a place where we're almost losing sight on the issue here. I’m very big on national security."
Behar: "I don't consider myself a fringe liberal."
Hasselbeck: "I don't think you are."
Behar: "I consider myself a mother, a woman, an American citizen, a patriotic American."
Hasselbeck: "That's me, too."
Behar: "And I see what's going on-"
Hasselbeck: "Right, I do too."
Behar: "So I don't even like the use of terminology like that, a fringe liberal. That's like name-calling."
