Two days after NBC News reporter Dasha Burns made headlines with her first-hand account detailing just how extensive Democratic Pennsylvania Senate nominee John Fetterman’s deterioration post-stroke was, the cackling coven of ABC’s The View had their knives out for her. They suggested Burns broke journalistic ethics, it was no big deal that Fetterman couldn’t comprehend speech and mocked Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker (R) for supposedly having an impairment too.
After playing a portion of Burns’ report on MSNBC, co-host Whoopi Goldberg appeared to scoff at the public’s need to know a candidate’s medical history and suggested they needed to wait to see Fetterman’s records until after the election and the swearing-in:
See, because once you release your medical records, we want all your medical records. So, people are saying, why hasn't he done that? Should he put that issue to rest or do people have to wait for him to get better in – for January? Because when would he take over? He would take over in January, right?
Co-host Sara Haines agreed and argued that all he really needed to do was get a doctor’s note like he’s a kid in school too embarrassed to take gym class. “I think it would suffice,” she said, despite The View’s previous demands for all of Donald Trump’s medical records. She then seemed to suggest people, including Burns, were too dumb to understand what Fetterman’s condition was (click “expand”):
But I think the problem here is, if someone were deaf or blind, they would understand that they have an issue with hearing or seeing. People aren't understanding the processing part.
So, when she said that thing about how he didn't necessarily understand her in small talk, the auditory processing doesn't matter if it's a short sentence or long sentence, simple or complex words, it's an auditory processing problem. So, unless she was speaking small talk in closed captioning, he was not going to understand. That's not the issue.
The always vicious (and racist) Sunny Hostin was up next to lash out at Burns and suggest it was “inappropriate” of her to discuss what her small talk with Fetterman was like before the taped interview, hinting she broke journalistic ethics:
I just feel that, you know, I don't know if it was an off-the-record conversation – if the entire interview was off-the-record. But I know – Sara, you’ve interviewed people and we have small talk before. That is generally not something that you mention when you’re being interviewed by an anchor.
Hostin then defended Fetterman by suggesting she was like him in that she “love[s]” using closed captioning. “I watch all my series closed captioned because I can’t sometimes understand accents that people are using and I don't understand things. And it's helpful in terms of processing,” she said.
Without evidence, she proclaimed: “I don't have a cognitive disorder.” Hostin also relied on comments from her “friend” and political CNN doctor, Sanjay Gupta to downplay Fetterman’s condition, despite never examining him as a patient.
Following a commercial break, co-host Joy Behar turned her sights on Walker and indicated that he too had an issue with his head. As evidence of this hypothesis, she read an unartful comment Walker once made about climate change, which drew raucous laughter from the audience and the cast:
BEHAR: I'm going to read to you what Herschel Walker said on climate change. He said, “we don't control the air. Our good air decided to float over to China's bad air.
[Laughter]
So, when China gets our good air, their bad air's got to move, so it moves over to our good air space, see?
[Laughter]
HOSTIN: That's a very valid point.
HAINES [Mockingly]: Oh! Okay, I get it now!
[Laughter]
BEHAR: It’s about the good air and the bad air.
Flaunting a stunning level of cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy, Haines would soon follow up by decrying a comment made by the “PR team” for the Republican in the race, Mehmet Oz, about Fetterman not eating vegetables. She made her point by reading the response from the Fetterman camp, “I know politics can be nasty, but even then I could never imagine ridiculing someone for their health challenges.”
Again, this came after Haines and the rest of the cast roared with laughter at the possibility that Walker had brain damage.
This wasn’t the first time The View defended the questionable mental capacities of a Democrat. Last month, they circled the wagons for President Biden after he called out for a member of Congress who had been deceased for nearly two months. They diagnosed Biden with a “brain fart” moment.
This sick refusal to tell people the truth about Fetterman was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Angi and Progressive. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
October 13, 2022
11:15:22 a.m. EasternWHOOPI GOLDBERG: So Fetterman's doctor wrote a letter saying that this is a processing issue. He has no cognitive impairment, and he's fit to serve. But Fetterman has yet to release any over medical records. See, because once you release your medical records, we want all your medical records. So, people are saying, why hasn't he done that? Should he put that issue to rest or do people have to wait for him to get better in – for January? Because when would he take over? He would take over in January, right?
SARA HAINES: Well, he had his stroke in May, and that letter came out in June. I don't think -- they keep pushing for the medical records. I think it would suffice just to have an updated letter because he said, I wouldn't have been able to sit down and do this a month after. He’s clearly had so much rehab that he's doing better. So to show them, that I would have the doctor do it again.
But I think the problem here is, if someone were deaf or blind, they would understand that they have an issue with hearing or seeing. People aren't understanding the processing part.
So, when she said that thing about how he didn't necessarily understand her in small talk, the auditory processing doesn't matter if it's a short sentence or long sentence, simple or complex words, it's an auditory processing problem. So, unless she was speaking small talk in closed captioning, he was not going to understand. That's not the issue.
SUNNY HOSTIN: I actually thought it was inappropriate that she said “during small talk before our interview.”
GOLDBERG: Maybe she's bad at small talk! Maybe it was her!
HOSTIN: Maybe it's her!
I just feel that, you know, I don't know if it was an off-the-record conversation – if the entire interview was off-the-record. But I know – Sara, you’ve interviewed people and we have small talk before. That is generally not something that you mention when you’re being interviewed by an anchor.
The other thing that I had a problem with when she's describing all of this – I mean, I don't know about everybody else, but I love closed caption. I watch all my series closed captioned because I can’t sometimes understand accents that people are using and I don't understand things. And it's helpful in terms of processing and I don't have a cognitive disorder.
And so, that's the second thing, and the last thing I'll say, I don't think she's, like, a neural surgeon or a neurologist, but my friend Sanjay Gupta is. And Sanjay Gupta said the following. Sanjay Gupta said: “Processing issue is not a comprehension issue,” as Sara just said. He says, “he does not appear to have a problem with cognition. He's responding quickly. He supposedly took a couple of tests where he performed well on those tests. He does not appear to have a problem with understanding.”
(…)
11:23:41 a.m. Eastern
JOY BEHAR: I just wanted to add on the Fetterman conversation that, what makes the Republicans think that Herschel Walker is coherent and he hasn't had a stroke?
[Laughter and applause]
I mean, I'm going to --
HOSTIN: That's a very -- that's a valid point.
BEHAR: I'm going to read to you what Herschel Walker said on climate change. He said, “we don't control the air. Our good air decided to float over to China's bad air.
[Laughter]
So, when China gets our good air, their bad air's got to move, so it moves over to our good air space, see?
[Laughter]
HOSTIN: That's a very valid point.
HAINES [Mockingly]: Oh! Okay, I get it now!
[Laughter]
BEHAR: It’s about the good air and the bad air.
(…)
11:25:19 a.m. Eastern
HAINES: The response from Dr. Orz's – Oz’s PR team was if Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn't have had a major stroke.
HOSTIN: Oh. Oh, that's mean.
HAINES: Yeah. And then Fetterman replied, is team, “I know politics can be nasty, but even then I could never imagine ridiculing someone for their health challenges.” And to me, that showed a lot about the difference in –
BEHAR: But Mehmet didn't say that himself, did he?
HOSTIN: His team.
HAINES: No. The point is you are who you surround yourself with. If someone is tweeting that for you, they were allowed to.
(…)
