It might as well have been Christmas Day on The View, Tuesday, as each host couldn’t hide their excitement over their Democrat guest, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and her mission to continue hounding President Trump and his family with lawsuits and investigations once he leaves office.
In fact, co-host Whoopi Goldberg couldn’t help but cheer while lovingly introducing the Democrat AG, who has filed a whopping 68 lawsuits against President Trump’s administration since she took office in 2019:
The very mention of our next guest must strike fear in the heart of you-know-who right now 'cause after shutting down his foundation and filing nearly 70 lawsuits against his administration she now has an active investigation into his business dealings that could severely impact him and his family when he leaves the White House. Please welcome New York Attorney General Letitia James. Letitia, welcome to the show. Welcome to The View. Whoo!
Whoopi admitted they were “thrilled” by their guest before asking James to spill “the tea” on how her current investigation is going. "We're thrilled. Now you-know-who may be working so hard to stay in the White House because he knows he's going to have to be facing a mountain of legal problems once he leaves, including your investigation into his business practices. So, please give us the tea," she implored.
Trying to distance herself from Whoopi’s overly gushy welcome, James began by insisting she wasn’t being political with 68 lawsuits in two years against Trump: “I'm an independently elected official in New York,” she stated. If that wasn’t funny enough, she then touted how her investigation into the Trump Organization was based off of convicted felon Michael Cohen’s testimony (he also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress).
As expected, there was no pushback from the liberal hosts at The View. All they wanted to know was if Trump was going to be punished in some way.
Sara Haines asked if it was legal for the President to pardon himself. James insisted he couldn’t, before predicting he would step down and ask the Vice President to do it before January 20. But she assured the hosts she was one step ahead of Trump and had introduced a bill that would make sure he couldn’t “avoid justice":
Now, it's important to understand he's pardoned from federal crimes. But he is not pardoned from state crimes. Last year I introduced a bill in the state legislature which would close the pardon loophole so that individuals such as the President of the United States would not evade justice. It's important we have this check on presidential powers and that the legislature--the state legislature, I'm so happy they passed that bill and it's now the law in the state of New York. President Trump cannot avoid justice in the great state of New York.
The idea of Trump and his family being "prosecuted" excited host Joy Behar. "So, so just to reiterate, there's no way a potential pardon for Trump or his three eldest kids would shield them from anything you're investigating? Am I right?," she said hopefully to which James agreed.
Behar added, "And you also intend to prosecute him after he's out of office, correct?" James pointed out this was just a civil case (for now), before reassuring her their lawsuit would continue no matter what.
The only semi-critical question came from co-host Sunny Hostin, who asked James to respond to comments from President Trump and his daughter Ivanka calling out the "harassment" from the New York AG. In response, the Democrat laughably reiterated how none of this was political. "So, in regards to her comments, um, the politics stop at the door of the office of Attorney General," she insisted.
But her comments following this clearly contradicted that obvious falsehood. She gushed how Democrat attorney generals haven't been given enough "credit" for being resistance leaders against the Trump administration, protecting illegal immigrants, the environment and ObamaCare, among others (click "expand"):
….With respect to the rant of the President of the United States, since I've been in office these past two years, yes, my office has either led or joined 68 lawsuits against this administration. Protecting our environment, protecting immigrants, protecting the rights of women, protecting dreamers, protecting the affordable care act, protecting the postal service, and the list goes on and on, protecting the census, making sure we have an accurate and fair count so all individuals will be counted, regardless of their circumstance. It's important that individuals understand I have a duty and obligation to stand up and to defend one thing and that is the Constitution and the law. I took a sworn oath to do that. I'll continue to do that. It's important that the President of the United States understand that no one is above the law including the President of these United States. I would urge him to act more like the late John F. Kennedy who basically wrote a book which indicated that this is a country of immigrants. Or how about FDR, who basically stood up and rescued our country at a time of financial ruin during the great depression? What we need from this president is an FDR moment. But I doubt we'll get it. So I look forward to working with the next administration, an administration I'm confident will follow the law. I look forward to sending to them, along with my colleagues across the nation, attorneys general who stood up and defended democracy each and every time. In all our cases we've won about 80% of those cases. Attorneys generals, particularly I might add democratic attorneys general, often don't get the credit. But they should because they've been the sole backbone of democracy in the United States over these past four years.
In four years, the Trump administration has faced almost double the amount of lawsuits from Democrats state attorneys as Obama and Bush each faced in their two terms.
Whoopi ended the interview giving her profound thanks again to the anti-Trump crusader:
I want to -- well, we are thrilled that you are came to hang with us. You have no idea how empowering it is to have you sitting here and saying what you're saying. So we give you our profound thanks...We commend you for everything you're trying to do, not just for the state, but for the country.
Olay and Tide sponsored The View, you can contact them at the Conservatives Fight Back page here.
Read relevant transcript portions below:
The View
12/8/2020
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Welcome back. The very mention of our next guest must strike fear in the heart of you-know-who right now 'cause after shutting down his foundation and filing nearly 70 lawsuits against his administration she now has an active investigation into his business dealings that could severely impact him and his family when he leaves the White House. Please welcome New York Attorney General Letitia James. Letitia, welcome to the show. Welcome to "The view." Whoo!
NY AG LETITIA JAMES: Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for having me.
WHOOPI: We're thrilled. Now you-know-who may be working so hard to stay in the White House because he knows he's going to have to be facing a mountain of legal problems once he leaves, including your investigation into his business practices. So, please give us the tea. Tell us everything you can tell us within, you know, legal boundaries because you can't tell us everything. But is this -- is this a lot of work, you think, for you?
JAMES: So let me just say that um I'm an independently elected official in New York um and the investigation that we are ongoing is as a result of the testimony of um Michael Cohen before Congress…
...[T]he fact that the president is -- Mr. Trump is the President of the United States um--really has no bearing on our investigation. In fact, the election really has no bearing on our investigation. We will continue our investigation whether he's president or not.
SARA HAINES: Well, speaking of President Trump, he's reportedly about to go on a pardon blitz. He may try to preemptively pardon himself, which is totally unprecedented. So let’s start with this. Can he even do that based on your legal expertise?
JAMES: So, he can preemptively pardon individuals um and the vast majority of legal scholars im have indicated that he cannot pardon himself. What he could do is step down and allow the vice president, Vice President Pence, to pardon him. In all likelihood I suspect he'll pardon his family members, his children, his son-in-law and individuals in his administration as well as some of his close associates. Then I suspect at some point in time he'll step down and allow the vice president to pardon him.
Now, it's important to understand he's pardoned from federal crimes. But he is not pardoned from state crimes. Last year I introduced a bill in the state legislature which would close the pardon loophole so that individuals such as the President of the United States would not evade justice. It's important we have this check on presidential powers and that the legislature--the state legislature, I'm so happy they passed that bill and it's now the law in the state of New York. President Trump cannot avoid justice in the great state of New York.
JOY BEHAR: So, so just to reiterate, there's no way a potential pardon for Trump or his three eldest kids would shield them from anything you're investigating? Am I right? That’s what you just said, I believe.
JAMES: Correct, but it's important --
BEHAR: So then --
[crosstalk]
JAMES: Joy, it's important to understand that my investigation is civil in nature. However in the event we uncover any conduct or activities that would suggest criminal activities, then that would change obviously our investigation. It would change the posture of our investigation.
BEHAR: And you also intend to prosecute him after he's out of office, correct?
JAMES: Joy, again, our investigation currently is civil in nature. It is not criminal.
[cross-talk, chuckling]
JAMES: In the event that we uncover any activity --
BEHAR: But will you go ahead with the civil suits?
JAMES: Oh, yes. Our civil suit will continue, whether he's president or not. So after January 20th at 12:00 our investigation will continue, Joy.
SUNNY HOSTIN: Attorney general James, let me ask you this, President Trump recently mentioned you by name during a 46-minute Facebook video saying, quote, 'these same people that failed to get me in Washington have sent every piece of information to New York so they can try to get me there,' end quote. Recently Ivanka Trump tweeted that your subpoena of the Trump organization for records I believe related to her consulting fees was 'harassment pure and simple.' How do you respond to these latest comments from the Trumps, especially that comment from Ivanka?
JAMES: So, in regards to her comments, um, the politics stop at the door of the office of Attorney General….
….With respect to the rant of the President of the United States, since I've been in office these past two years, yes, my office has either led or joined 68 lawsuits against this administration. Protecting our environment, protecting immigrants, protecting the rights of women, protecting dreamers, protecting the affordable care act, protecting the postal service, and the list goes on and on, protecting the census, making sure we have an accurate and fair count so all individuals will be counted, regardless of their circumstance. It's important that individuals understand I have a duty and obligation to stand up and to defend one thing and that is the Constitution and the law. I took a sworn oath to do that. I'll continue to do that. It's important that the President of the United States understand that no one is above the law including the President of these United States. I would urge him to act more like the late John F. Kennedy who basically wrote a book which indicated that this is a country of immigrants. Or how about FDR, who basically stood up and rescued our country at a time of financial ruin during the great depression? What we need from this president is an FDR moment. But I doubt we'll get it. So I look forward to working with the next administration, an administration I'm confident will follow the law. I look forward to sending to them, along with my colleagues across the nation, attorneys general who stood up and defended democracy each and every time. In all our cases we've won about 80% of those cases. Attorneys generals, particularly I might add democratic attorneys general, often don't get the credit. But they should because they've been the sole backbone of democracy in the United States over these past four years.
