Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s vacation was ruined by the news that her anti-American on-air foe would be returning to the set of The View. On the July 9 edition of Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy, Anna Kooiman, and Brian Kilmeade called the Fox host and former View moderator to comment on the news that Rosie O’Donnell would be resuming her radical left wing rhetoric on the ABC talk show.
Hasselbeck responded, “what could ruin a vacation more than to hear news like this” before expressing her dismay that “the very woman who [has] been in the face of our military, been in the face of her own network and really in the face of a person who stood by her and had civilized debates for the time that she was there” would be returning as a moderator. [Click here for MP3 audio. See video below]
Apparently, O’Donnell revealed to the Fox and Friends co-host that she had produced Barbara Walter’s farewell show and seemed to have “lot of control” for a women who left the show amid a swirl of controversy. According to Hasselbeck, Barbara’s good-bye show was really “Rosie O'Donnell's hello show.”
See transcript below:
Fox News
Fox & Friends
July 9, 2014
8:45 a.m. Eastern
3 minutes and 39 seconds
STEVE DOOCY: She's not a double speaker. So what does her former co-host think about that? Elisabeth Hasselbeck who is currently on vacation, picked up a phone and she joins us live. Good morning to you.
ANNA KOOIMAN: Good morning.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Good morning my friends. Hi, Steve, Brian and Anna. This is how I’ve watched the show for years so I'm thrilled to be joining you from my staycation. Just flipped some pancakes for the kids and what could ruin a vacation more than to hear news like this. I, I know Rosie very well. We worked quite closely. Talk about not securing the border. Here in comes to The View the very woman who been in the face of our military, been in the face of her own network and really in the face of a person who stood by her and had civilized debates for the time that she was there, coming back with a bunch of control ready to regain the seat of The View table, not surprising. I think this has been in the works for a long time.
BRIAN KILMEADE: Why? Why do you think it's been in the works for a long time?
HASSELBECK: Okay, so I'll go back to the reunion show for Barbara. How odd is this, when you have the woman who again insinuated that our own troops were terrorists in Iraq at the time then left the show, meanwhile, while still at the end of her contract, to have such ease the day of Barbara's good-bye show was shocking to me. She walked around with a lot of control and then when I had the chance to talk to her, Rosie herself told me on set while we were miked up that she produced the reunion show to have everybody together and it was her idea. Now, would you think that the woman who left the way that she did would be producing Barbara's good-bye show? Here is the shocker, it was actually her hello show.
KOOIMAN: Wow.
DOOCY: She had been planning this.
KOOIMAN: Yeah. And a lot of people are saying she's going to have a heavy hand in whose going to be added to the show. Get your thoughts on that in just a bit. But, as they’re looking, Harvey Levin from TMZ was giving you huge accolades last night with Greta Van Susteran. Listen to this.
LEVIN: To me, the lynch pin in this whole thing was Elisabeth Hasselbeck. And, you know, ironically, I didn't think so at the time. She was the key to the success of the show. At least in the last eight or nine years, because she was the lightning rod. And you saw what happened, you showed it, with Rosie and Elisabeth. And that's the stuff people like seeing. You don't want five people or four people all of whom are agreeing.
DOOCY: And see that was the problem for a lot of people with the latest batch, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, was everybody had the same view. You need to have the other point of view. Otherwise it's dull.
HASSELBECK: Well, The View is supposed to be just that. Now, here is a fact, anyone who is going to be in that seat, if indeed this is all going to play out as I think it will, or already has, will have to be fully approved by Rosie. Now, let's not forget, Whoopi Goldberg is sitting there and Whoopi’s not going to let anybody control her. Whoopi is an EGOT. Okay. She's has actually more trophies in her case than rosy. She's the leader on that show. I'm going to be very interested to see how that goes.
DOOCY: So they're going to butt heads? You think their going to butt heads?
HASSELBECK: I don't think it would be wise for Rosie O'Donnell to challenge Whoopi Goldberg on anything. I really don't. And I would also say that after years of being there, Rosie found out one thing about me, don't mess with a pregnant mama and do not mess with our military when it comes to this girl sitting next to her. I do, I do believe that this has been in the works for a long, long time. She wanted to redo the split screen and voice it over from our original confrontation right there. I was not up for that. She seemed to have a lot of control for Barbara's farewell show. Again, it is Rosie O'Donnell's hello show, in my opinion.
LEVIN: As Barbara said good-bye, she said hello. That's probably not a coincidence either.
