With Hurricane Ian bearing down on Florida, politics was rightly put aside as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and President Biden (D) were working together to get resources and support to the state. But the cackling coven of ABC’s The View were so filled with hate in their hearts that they lashed out at DeSantis for thanking Biden and suggested he was like a little dictator. But one cast member took issue with how their network and the media were playing politics with the storm even calling it “clickbait.”
At the top of the show, they played two quotes from DeSantis thanking Biden and talking about how politics was being put aside to the benefit of the people (Click “expand”):
My phone line's open. When people's lives and property are at risk like this, we all need to work together regardless of party lines. The Biden administration has approved our request for a pre-landfall declaration and did that very quickly. So, we're thankful for that.
[Transition]
And it's my sense that the administration, you know, wants to help. I think they realize that this is a really significant storm, and there's a lot of people that we're working with the locals. We work very well with them, of course at the state level, but we really need everyone working together to make sure people have their needs tended to.
But as they came back, co-host Whoopi Goldberg had an inexplicable attitude and sneer as she bashed DeSantis for his comments. “Well I mean, he's the president of the United States, that includes Florida. And you don't have to, you know, you don't have to agree with him about stuff, but these are his people, your people, our people. That's what you are supposed to,” she ranted.
The not-so joyful Joy Behar chimed in next to do a mocking little jig with her hands raised and suggest that governments preparing for a hurricane was something Republicans didn’t like: socialism. She also leaned on the intellectually vapid argument that firefighters and police are socialist programs:
BEHAR: Isn't it socialism when the government helps you?
SUNNY HOSTIN: That's what they say. Like social security and Medicare and Medicaid and things like that.
BEHAR: Yeah, and the fire department’s got to come and the police. I mean, socialism! [Raises hands and does a mocking dance]
Always vile “Sunny Hostin” (a fake name) chimed in to rhetorically ask, “what are we going to see from the individual mayors and what kind of leadership will we see from DeSantis?” She was just teeing herself up to suggest he’ll be good at organizing for the storm because he’s like a little dictator.
“DeSantis, in my view, he's like, you know, he likes to have like a little fiefdom. He likes to be in charge,” she ripped.
The most surprising comments came from co-host Sara Haines who took issue with the media’s politicized coverage of Hurricane Ian.
The View falls under the ABC News umbrella and Haines didn’t like how their information “packet” was framing DeSantis’s comments as “DeSantis praises Biden, praises Biden, praises Biden.” Her gripe seemed to be that the network was overhyping comments as some sort of victory for Biden and decried it as “clickbait.”
She also disapproved of how the media’s questions to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, during a White House press conference on Tuesday, boiled down to “did Biden call DeSantis? Did Biden call DeSantis?” “[I]f we're going to say we're consistent and worried about humans and a storm and all coming together, the coverage of that should also show that,” she said.
These attacks on DeSantis while he’s trying to organize a respond to a hurricane were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from CarShield and L’Oréal. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
September 28, 2022
11:01:47 a.m. EasternWHOOPI GOLDBERG: Well, Florida's bracing for a Hurricane Ian to make landfall in just a few hours and the Governor DeSantis says it's all hands on deck to prepare for what's coming and that includes reaching across the aisle for help. Take a look.
[Cuts to video]
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): My phone line's open. When people's lives and property are at risk like this, we all need to work together regardless of party lines. The Biden administration has approved our request for a pre-landfall declaration and did that very quickly. So, we're thankful for that.
[Transition]
And it's my sense that the administration, you know, wants to help. I think they realize that this is a really significant storm, and there's a lot of people that we're working with the locals. We work very well with them, of course at the state level, but we really need everyone working together to make sure people have their needs tended to.
[Cuts back to live]
GOLDBERG: Well I mean, he's the president of the United States, that includes Florida. And you don't have to, you know, you don't have to agree with him about stuff, but these are his people, your people, our people. That's what you are supposed to.
This is what they did in New Jersey with Obama and Chris Christie. You know? That's the job of the administration. That's what they're supposed to do.
JOY BEHAR: Isn't it socialism when the government helps you?
SUNNY HOSTIN: That's what they say. Like social security and Medicare and Medicaid and things like that.
BEHAR: Yeah, and the fire department’s got to come and the police. I mean, socialism! [Raises hands and does a mocking dance]
(…)
11:04:59 a.m. Eastern
HOSTIN: But I wonder, what are we going to see from the individual mayors and what kind of leadership will we see from DeSantis?
BEHAR: You know what really ticks me off?
GOLDBERG: I think we should wait a day or two and let this do what it's going to do.
BEHAR: Yeah, he'll be fine. I think he'll handle it. He's not stupid.
GOLDBERG: No, no. She's talking about the gov—she’s talking about the other folks in the --
HOSTIN: I hope he can organize in the way that the Puerto Rican governor -- he took a lot of flak for it, but he really organized Puerto Rico and organized those mayors, and the mayor of San Juan especially where when you think about DeSantis, in my view, he's, like, you know, he likes to have like a little fiefdom. He likes to be in charge.
[Crosstalk]
SARA HAINES: I thought the –
GOLDBERG: Sorry.
HAINES: It’s all right.
The coverage, like when we're talking about it, we say this is what presidents do because they don't just help the people that voted for them. They help all people. So, what we saw was very normal, but the part that kind of caught me was the coverage of it because we were reading our packets and it kept saying “DeSantis praises Biden, praises Biden, praises Biden.”
And I'm looking and I'm, like, “where’s the praise?” I see this, “thank you for your help, Mr. President.” And I thought, when did that become -- when did politics become so ugly that so say, I'm grateful – which I'm not criticizing the language. I'm saying the coverage of it was like clickbait.
And yesterday during the hearing with the FEMA – the administrator from the FEMA – Sorry. The FEMA administrator who was running this press conference, every question was, “did Biden call DeSantis? Did Biden call DeSantis?” And it’s kind of like, if we're going to say we're consistent and worried about humans and a storm and all coming together, the coverage of that should also show that.
(…)
