Ex-Republican and Washington Post columnist George Will appeared on The View Friday to promote his book and do the only thing right-leaning commentators are invited on television to do: bash President Trump and promote the left. Will got right to that, comparing “Trump Republicans” to cockroaches that had infested the party, to the friendly hosts. However, the tables turned quickly later, as the liberal hosts attacked him for being against reparations.
Meghan McCain began by noting Will had left the party because of Trump. She wondered if the GOP would ever return back to the days of Ronald Reagan. Will said that if Trump was re-elected, the party would be long gone. That encouraged Joy Behar to go on attack mode. Will joined in, calling Trump voters essentially cockroaches that would continue to infest the party for decades to come:
BEHAR: You know, the Trump party seems to be in what they call like a white panic that the demographics are changing rapidly that white people are going to disappear or something, and they're in this panic state I think, and do you think that the Republican party will disappear and become extinct like the Whig party eventually? There are concerns. Are you in agreement with that?
WILL: Back in the day when we used to worry about nuclear weapons, the experts said that cockroaches could survive nuclear war because they're just simple mechanisms. Our political parties are like cockroaches. They are simple and they will adapt. They won't disappear, but they won't resemble anything like we’ve had before.
BEHAR: The Republican party will not disappear?
WILL: I don't think so. It's very hard to get rid of these things.
JOY BEHAR/SUNNY HOSTIN: Like cockroaches!
WILL: Right
Later on Sunny Hostin, Joy Behar and Ana Navarro hounded Will for not agreeing that reparations was a good idea. Hostin began by claiming it was a “big campaign issue” and that blacks today do not have the same opportunities as whites. After Will explained that the myriad of reasons why reparations were impractical and unwise, he was attacked by all the hosts, save for Meghan McCain:
BEHAR: There is DNA evidence now, and they can see.
HOSTIN: Just because it’s difficult does that mean we shouldn't approach it? We have put man on the moon. We have stopped crimes with DNA. We have done so much in this country. There is still disparate mistreatment. There is a significant wealth gap. All that people are asking about is a commission to study reparations and there is pushback about that!
WILL: One can address the serious problem of wealth inequality without raising the issue of reparations, without making it racial because there are an enormous number of people of all colors who are poor.
NAVARRO: How can you not make it racial if we’re talking about slavery? Reparations for slavery.
WILL: What I’m suggesting is don't talk about it as racial matter.
NAVARRO: Oh George. [sigh]
