On Thursday's The View on ABC, during a discussion of the State Department finding that Hillary Clinton violated the agency's rules in spite of warnings by conducting business on a private home email server, co-host Whoopi Goldberg ridiculously rationalized the former Secretary's behavior by sympathetically claiming she was trying to keep personal email fights with her husband from making it into the newspaper.
Candace Cameron Bure asked what Hillary Clinton had to hide that made her ignore warnings from her colleagues on the matter. As if the Secretary could not have simply used a separate email account for personal correspondence, Goldberg theorized that Hillary Clinton was just trying to protect her personal email from public exposure and tried to put the onus on other officials to get her to stop: "I'll tell you exactly why. Because I know that if they grab an email where she's cussing Bill out for some reason because he forgot to bring the cutlets home, it's going to appear in the newspaper. I get why she did it. I don't understand why, if the State Department felt that she was breaking the law and that she was sending classified information, why they didn't stop it."
Fellow liberal co-host Joy Behar -- who is normally a big defender of the Clintons -- notably showed signs of wanting to abandon Hillary in favor of Bernie Sanders. Behar: "The bottom line basically is, at the end of the day, how much does this hurt Hillary? It could hurt her because people read headlines, and Trump is a bully about 'Crooked Hillary.' And my feeling is, if this hurts her and it pushes Bernie ahead, then we go with Bernie. That's how I feel. I'll do anything not to have Trump in the White House."
The group got to the topic at the beginning of the show. After a brief introduction from Goldberg, Behar questioned Hillary Clinton's judgment: "Well, they seem to have told her and warned her to not do it at a certain point a couple of years ago, and she didn't do it. She didn't listen. She kept doing what she was doing. That seems to be the problem, that, you know, it goes to: Is she -- what's her judgment? Does she follow procedure, all that stuff, you know?"
Goldberg soon started to wonder why other State Department employees did not get her to change her email procedure:
GOLDBERG: So if she was Secretary of State for, what, almost six years ... in all of that time, nobody thought to say, "Hey, wait a minute, we can't do this anymore. What are you doing?" Nobody thought to say -- because-
CANDACE CAMERON BURE: It says the interns -- they had interns and people working telling her, "You have to stop with the emailing..."
GOLDBERG: But here's my question: If the higher ups knew, why did they let it continue?
Then came the odd theory that Hillary Clinton was trying to conceal personal correspondence with her husband:
BURE: Exactly. What was there to hide? You tell me. What was there to hide?
GOLDBERG: What is there to hide for her?
BURE: Right. If she had nothing to hide, why wouldn't she comply with everything?
GOLDBERG: No, I'll tell you -- I'll tell you exactly why. Because I know that if they grab an email where she's cussing Bill out for some reason because he forgot to bring the cutlets home, it's going to appear in the newspaper. I get why she did it. I don't understand why, if the State Department felt that she was breaking the law and that she was sending classified information, why they didn't stop it.
Co-host Paula Faris soon pointed out that Hillary Clinton was the head of the State Department, and therefore everyone else's boss, hinting at her ultimate responsibility for her own actions: "You have some low-level staffers that approached some of her staffers and says, 'Hey, you can't do this,' but it's basically, you can't tell the boss what to do. It's like us telling our big boss what to do. I mean, you don't take advice from a low-level staffer."
Goldberg, who recently complained that Hillary Clinton was not warned by State Department employees about the issue of emailing classified information, again tried to redirect responsibility away from the former Secretary:
GOLDBERG: I'm sorry, but -- I'm sorry. If you're talking about classified information, I don't see how the State Department doesn't say to the President, "Mr. President, we've been trying to get her to do this. We can't go on with this."
PAULA FARIS: But she's the boss of the State Department.
GOLDBERG: But that's not the point.
Faris reiterated: "She's the boss of the State Department."
After Bure repeated that the Secretary had been warned about her email behavior, Behar then jumped back in to express her doubts about Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee: "The bottom line basically is, at the end of the day, how much does this hurt Hillary? It could hurt her because people read headlines, and Trump is a bully about "Crooked Hillary." And my feeling is, if this hurts her and it pushes Bernie ahead, then we go with Bernie. That's how I feel. I'll do anything not to have Trump in the White House."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Thursday, May 26, The View on ABC:
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: A State Department probe found that Hillary Clinton violated government rules by using -- only using her private email server while she was Secretary of State. You know, is this the last hurrah? What is this for her?
JOY BEHAR: Well, they seem to have told her and warned her to not do it at a certain point a couple of years ago, and she didn't do it. She didn't listen. She kept doing what she was doing. That seems to be the problem, that, you know, it goes to: Is she -- what's her judgment? Does she follow procedure, all that stuff, you know?
PAULA FARIS: Is she above the law? And a lot of people feel like she's above the law...
(...)
GOLDBERG: So if she was Secretary of State for, what, almost six years ... in all of that time, nobody thought to say, "Hey, wait a minute, we can't do this anymore. What are you doing?" Nobody thought to say -- because-
CANDACE CAMERON BURE: It says the interns -- they had interns and people working telling her, "You have to stop with the emailing..."
GOLDBERG: But here's my question: If the higher ups knew, why did they let it continue?
BURE: Exactly. What was there to hide? You tell me. What was there to hide?
GOLDBERG: What is there to hide for her?
BURE: Right. If she had nothing to hide, why wouldn't she comply with everything?
GOLDBERG: No, I'll tell you -- I'll tell you exactly why. Because I know that if they grab an email where she's cussing Bill out for some reason because he forgot to bring the cutlets home, it's going to appear in the newspaper. I get why she did it. I don't understand why, if the State Department felt that she was breaking the law and that she was sending classified information, why they didn't stop it.
(...)
FARIS: You have some low-level staffers that approached some of her staffers and says, "Hey, you can't do this," but it's basically, you can't tell the boss what to do. It's like us telling our big boss what to do. I mean, you don't take advice from a low-level staffer.
GOLDBERG: I'm sorry, but -- I'm sorry. If you're talking about classified information, I don't see how the State Department doesn't say to the President, "Mr. President, we've been trying to get her to do this. We can't go on with this."
PAULA FARIS: But she's the boss of the State Department.
GOLDBERG: But that's not the point.
FARIS: She's the boss of the State Department.
BURE: She had been warned so many times, and they refused it.
BEHAR: Can I just say something? The bottom line basically is, at the end of the day, how much does this hurt Hillary? It could hurt her because people read headlines, and Trump is a bully about "Crooked Hillary." And my feeling is, if this hurts her and it pushes Bernie ahead, then we go with Bernie. That's how I feel. I'll do anything not to have Trump in the White House.
