During an appearance on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Monday night, former View co-host and left-wing conspiracy theorist Rosie O’Donnell not only defended outrageous comparisons of illegal immigration detention centers to “concentration camps,” but she claimed that there were “over 100,000” camps spread across the United States.
Near the end of the show, Cohen helped promote a planned nationwide liberal protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, teeing up O’Donnell: “Rosie, you’re going to be doing a vigil called Lights for Liberty, July 12th, demanding an end to the detention camps.” O’Donnell launched into a fact-free rant:
Yeah, the concentration camps, even though there’s lots of controversy about the word. But actually, legitimate scholars who have studied genocide say, yes, these are, in fact, the criteria for concentration camps, they meet them. There are over 100,000 camps in nearly every state. There’s between 10,000 and 13,000 children, that could fill Radio City Music Hall twice. That's how many children unaccompanied alone in these camps.
Despite her assertion that “scholars” agree with the offensive “concentration camps” comparison, on Monday, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. released a statement condemning anyone making such comparisons: “The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum unequivocally rejects efforts to create analogies between the Holocaust and other events, whether historical or contemporary.”
Earlier on the Monday night talk show, a viewer asked O’Donnell “if you ever tune in to watch The View and what you think of Meghan McCain?” O’Donnell replied that she doesn’t watch the show but expressed some sympathy for McCain:
I don’t watch it. And I knew her when she was very young, I had the pleasure of working with her father for a lot of the Wounded Warriors Projects. And so got to know him through there. And you know, I think she’s in a difficult position....You know, she was very, very tight with her father and he had been dying for a while. And I think she’s – we watched her daily, you know, try to grieve and get through. It’s not really that easy. So I do have some compassion for her.
However, she then scolded McCain for daring to argue with liberal co-host Joy Behar: “Although I wish she wouldn’t be mean to Joy Behar, who is, you know, like a living legend, and is – should be respected for no other reason than she’s the elder statesman in the room, you know?”
So the U.S. is filled with “concentration camps” and Joy Behar is an “elder statesman,” this is the alternate reality in which Rosie O’Donnell lives.
Here are excerpts of the June 24 appearance:
10:10 PM ET
(...)
ANDY COHEN: RodieCodie from Nashville wants to know if you ever tune in to watch The View and what you think of Meghan McCain?
ROSIE O’DONNELL: I don’t watch it. And I knew her when she was very young, I had the pleasure of working with her father for a lot of the Wounded Warriors Projects. And so got to know him through there. And you know, I think she’s in a difficult position and she’s –
COHEN: Being the conservative voice on the show.
O’DONNELL: Yeah, trying to do that while grieving. You know, she was very, very tight with her father and he had been dying for a while. And I think she’s – we watched her daily, you know, try to grieve and get through. It’s not really that easy. So I do have some compassion for her. Although I wish she wouldn’t be mean to Joy Behar, who is, you know, like a living legend, and is – should be respected for no other reason than she’s the elder statesman in the room, you know?
(...)
10:27 PM ET
COHEN: Rosie, you’re going to be doing a vigil called Lights for Liberty, July 12th, demanding an end to the detention camps.
O’DONNELL: Yeah, the concentration camps, even though there’s lots of controversy about the word. But actually, legitimate scholars who study genocide say, yes, these are, in fact, the criteria for concentration camps, they meet them. There are over 100,000 camps in nearly every state. There’s between 10,000 and 13,000 children, that could fill Radio City Music Hall twice. That's how many children unaccompanied alone in these camps.
COHEN: Where’s the –
O’DONNELL: There are five cities on the 12th. New York, Miami, San Diego – I will remember the other two.
COHEN: Chicago, LA, D.C.?
O’DONNELL: I don’t know. Boy, that’s bad. LightsForLiberty.org, you can find out all about it.
COHEN: Alright. Would you ever do a political talk show?
O’DONNELL: No, I think I would get too angry.
COHEN: Yes, right.
O’DONNELL: You know, I’d want to yell at everybody, going, “Do you see what’s going on?!”
(...)
