With former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley dropping out of the Republican primary on Wednesday, all eyes looked to the general election, and polls showing former President Trump leading President Biden nationally made many of the cast of ABC’s The View shake in their heels. But the network’s chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl was there to reassure them and the liberal audience that Democrats would cure Americans of the “collective amnesia” that was supposedly keeping them from accurately remembering the Trump years.
Encapsulating The View’s general mood post-Super Tuesday, staunchly racist and anti-Semitic co-host Sunny Hostin (the descendant of slave owners) announced that her outfit had a special meaning. “I'm wearing funeral chic today because I'm so devastated over what we saw yesterday,” she said, while also proclaiming that Republican voters put “party before country.”
To explain the support Trump was receiving, Karl invoked the condescension of the far-left New York Times in proclaiming that Americans writ large were suffering from a “collective amnesia” and were supposedly misremembering what the Trump presidency was like.
Karl boasted that he was doing his part to keep Trump out of office again by publishing yet another anti-Trump book (because you shouldn’t help America without making a little bit of scratch for yourself on the side):
There's been a collective amnesia about what it was like when Trump was president. It's why I wrote Tired of Winning; I wanted people to be aware of what really happened, particularly at the end. But not just that, but what Trump has been doing and saying privately and in some cases publicly that hasn't really been noted as much of what he would do if he got back into the White House.
But the polls loomed large in the mind of faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin and they weren’t sitting well with her. “Donald Trump is a uniquely unfit unprincipled man, yet The New York Times/Siena polling from this weekend and prior ABC polling has him beating Joe Biden head-to-head outside of the margin of error,” she said.
Wondering to Karl: “Are they running scared enough?” Karl acknowledged the fact that it was more than one or two polls showing that result. “The current FiveThirtyEight averages all the public polling and Trump has a two-point lead over Biden in national polls right now,” he said.
He did admit that Biden was “certainly” working up “from a deficit” in the polls but wanted to remind everyone that, “If you go back exactly four years ago to Super Tuesday of 2020, Biden had a two-point lead over [Trump].” “You don't put too much stock into what polls tell you today about how people will vote in November,” he added, receiving the praises of moderator Whoopi Goldberg.
Reiterating the condescension that Americans had “collective amnesia,” Karl tried to reassure them that Democrats would cure it. “Democrats are going to be spending the next eight months making sure people know exactly what Donald Trump is all about,” he declared.
And despite the fact that the liberal media kept the focus on Trump and starved his challengers of oxygen, Karl suggested Trump had “been kind of off in the shadows” and there was only some “coverage of his criminal cases and everything,” but more was coming.
“Don't put much stock into that polls tell you today about how people will vote in November,” he added again.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
March 6, 2024
11:06:43 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: It's party before country. I mean, I'm wearing funeral chic today because I'm so devastated over what we saw yesterday.
And my question for you is, were you able to glean anything from the exit polls, and get a look at the mindset of those voters that we just talked about. Because backstage we were talking about the fact that six in ten of North Carolina primary voters say they'd consider Trump fit for the presidency even if he's convicted of a crime.
JON KARL: Yeah.
HOSTIN: Even if he's convicted of a crime and roughly six in ten North Carolina GOP primary voters deny that Biden's 2020 election win was legitimate.
KARL: And if you go further into those exit polls, what you'll see is a vastly different answer -- set of answers if you're asking Haley voters or if you're asking Trump voters. Almost all Trump voters believe the election was stolen. This wasn't. Almost all of Haley voters don't – understand the truth and haven't bought into the lie. And on the question of if you would still support him if still convicted, almost all of Haley voters say “absolutely not.” So, this is again why he will have a challenge going into—
And let's remember, and, by the way, The New York Times used the phrase today, “the collective amnesia.”
HOSTIN Yes.
KARL: There's been a collective amnesia about what it was like when Trump was president. It's why I wrote Tired of Winning; I wanted people to be aware of what really happened, particularly at the end. But not just that, but what Trump has been doing and saying privately and in some cases publicly that hasn't really been noted as much of what he would do if he got back into the White House.
But the exit polls show that, you know, that there's a significant chunk of the Republican Party, people like Alyssa over here, I think, who are just never going to vote for Donald Trump. And that's going to be a problem.
(…)
11:09:01 a.m. Eastern
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: Donald Trump is a uniquely unfit unprincipled man, yet The New York Times/Siena polling from this weekend and prior ABC polling has him beating Joe Biden head-to-head outside of the margin of error. Is Joe Biden running scared enough? Because he had this quote where he said – it kind of sounded like Trump’s “I alone can fix it” – ‘I beat him before, I’m the best guy to do it again.’ Are they running scared enough?
KARL: Well, first of all, it's several recent polls. The current FiveThirtyEight averages all the public polling and Trump has a two-point lead over Biden in national polls right now. If you go back exactly four years ago to Super Tuesday of 2020, Biden had a two-point lead over – So he's starting – you know, certainly from a deficit. But first of all, you know this well. You don't put too much stock into what polls tell you today--
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Thank you!
KARL: -- about how people will vote in November.
GOLDBERG: Yes! Say it again, Karl! Jon Karl, say it again! Say it again!
[Applause]
KARL: I mean --
HOSTIN: Obama's disapproval rating was the same – pretty much the same and then he won.
KARL: And look, you do have that collective amnesia that we talked about. Democrats are going to be spending the next eight months making sure people know exactly what Donald Trump is all about. And, you know, he's been kind of off in the shadows. I mean, there has been coverage of his criminal cases and everything, but we're at the beginning of a very long presidential campaign, and, again -- I'll say it again. Don't put much stock into that polls tell you today about how people will vote in November.
GOLDBERG: That’s right.
JOY BEHAR: It's exhausting.
KARL: If we did that President Clinton would be preparing to hand the baton off.
GOLDBERG: You mean President Hillary Clinton?
KARL: Yes. Yes. President Hillary Clinton because polls all said she was going to win.
(…)
