The View co-host Meghan McCain irritated her co-hosts on Wednesday’s show by calling out the left’s convenient double standards on sexual assault allegations made against men in positions of power. The co-hosts were blasting Matt Lauer’s “fact-check” of the rape allegations against him, when Joy Behar brought up the accusations against Joe Biden, and cautioned how we shouldn’t actually “believe all women.”
After Sunny Hostin and Meghan McCain began the segment blasting Lauer, Behar said she was troubled by Lauer’s column but at the same time, we couldn’t just believe people like Tara Reade “because she’s a woman”:
On the other hand, there's another issue, like, we're in the middle of this Tara Reade accusing Biden of sexual assault. Are we supposed to believe her just because she's a woman? To me, if you say, I believe any woman who makes any accusation -- if you say that, I think it minimizes our credibility as women, and then nobody's going to believe anybody at some point. So these things have to be thoroughly investigated, thoroughly vetted. I would like to have all 24 of the women who were accusing Trump of sexual assault be vetted and let's hear from them also. Let us hear from them. We heard from Tara. Let's hear from them. We heard from Matt now. Let's hear from the woman again. I mean, everybody has to have a voice in this. I feel as though it can be used as a political cudgel against a political rival. And that I think is dangerous.
That’s when McCain reminded Behar what the left said about Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh:
Kind of like with Brett Kavanaugh? I'm just saying. You hear a lot of women saying, I believe all women, but were singing an entirely different tune after Kavanaugh... but I just think its interesting that we believe all women now and we didn’t believe---It's an entirely different tune earlier this year [sic] in the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
She's right. During the Kavanaugh hearings, Joy Behar actually declared the Supreme Court Justice was “probably guilty,” on multiple shows. Behar only started advocating caution towards these kinds of claims when Democrat Al Franken was under fire.
When it was her turn to talk, Whoopi ignored the Kavanaugh aspect. But Sunny Hostin was peeved and set out to defend the left's double standards. Proving McCain’s point, Hostin did a 180 from what she said during the Kavanaugh hearings, that all women deserve to be “believed” without question. Today, she backed away from that hardline position, saying she only ever advocated for a woman “to be heard.” But then she again seemed to contradict herself, saying that while Dr. Ford was heard, there wasn’t a thorough enough “investigation” into her baseless claims against Kavanaugh:
SUNNY HOSTIN: Can I just say this, in terms of, we have to believe all women? I think the point is that women should be heard when it comes to being victimized. I spent a lot of my career being a sex crimes prosecutor, and the bottom line is women have to be heard. They have that right, and the problem with sexual assault in this country is that women feel that they are not going to be heard, that they are not going to be believed, and that is why rape continues to be the most underreported crime in this country, and when it comes to Brett Kavanaugh, Dr. Ford testified. She testified, and was able to tell her side of the story, and her claims were not thoroughly investigated by the FBI because Congress shut her investigation down and didn't give her investigation the breadth and the depth that it deserved. That is the bottom line there. So no one I don't think on this show is saying that women should not be heard.
So by Hostin’s own standards, where is the FBI investigation into Tara Reade’s claims against Joe Biden?
A confused Meghan McCain reiterated that’s not what was she was saying: “No. I'm not saying women shouldn't be heard, obviously.” Before she could restate her point, Whoopi quickly shut down the discussion and cut to commercial.
The View completely ignored the Reade story for weeks after it broke. But they spent several weeks harping on Brett Kavanaugh and weighing in with their own judgements against the Supreme Court Justice.
Read the relevant portions of the transcript, below:
The View
5/20/20
JOY BEHAR: On the other hand, there's another issue, like, we're in the middle of this Tara Reade accusing Biden of sexual assault. Are we supposed to believe her just because she's a woman? To me, if you say, I believe any woman who makes any accusation -- if you say that, I think it minimizes our credibility as women, and then nobody's going to believe anybody at some point. So these things have to be thoroughly investigated, thoroughly vetted. I would like to have all 24 of the women who were accusing Trump of sexual assault be vetted and let's hear from them also. Let us hear from them. We heard from Tara. Let's hear from them. We heard from Matt now. Let's hear from the woman again. I mean, everybody has to have a voice in this. I feel as though it can be used as a political cudgel against a political rival. And that I think is dangerous.
MCCAIN: Kind of like with Brett Kavanaugh? I'm just saying. You hear a lot of women saying, I believe all women, but were singing an entirely different tune after Kavanaugh, but I actually don't think that's the point. People are going after Ronan farrow. He's a pulitzer prize-winning journalist. They don't just hand those things out to anybody, and the idea he's somehow hurting the industry or hurting journalism, The New York Times has a lot of things to answer for in a lot of ways, but I just think its interesting that we believe all women now and we didn’t believe---It's an entirely different tune earlier this year [sic] in the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
[Cross-talk]
JOY BEHAR: All I'm saying is you don't ipso facto believe somebody because they made an accusation.
MCCAIN: I don't. I never have been. I'm very consistent on this. I'm very consistent on this. I don't believe all women.
BEHAR: They have to be investigated. And I believe the Kavanaugh thing was investigated.
…
SUNNY HOSTIN: Can I just say this, in terms of, we have to believe all women? I think the point is that women should be heard when it comes to being victimized. I spent a lot of my career being a sex crimes prosecutor, and the bottom line is women have to be heard. They have that right, and the problem with sexual assault in this country is that women feel that they are not going to be heard, that they are not going to be believed, and that is why rape continues to be the most underreported crime in this country, and when it comes to Brett Kavanaugh, Dr. Ford testified. She testified, and was able to tell her side of the story, and her claims were not thoroughly investigated by the FBI because Congress shut her investigation down and didn't give her investigation the breadth and the depth that it deserved. That is the bottom line there. So no one I don't think on this show is saying that women should not be heard.
