The co-hosts of The View are not holding back their criticisms of Donald Trump after he celebrated the death of former FBI director Robert Mueller.
Trump has garnered pushback after he wrote on Truth Social that he was “glad” Mueller, 81, died so that he could not “hurt innocent people” anymore, prompting the stars of ABC’s daytime talk show to discuss the controversial statement during Monday’s show.
“I thought that was something beneath the dignity of the office of the presidency,” co-host Sunny Hostin said.
She then demonstrated the Trump administration’s hypocrisy by recalling Vice President JD Vance’s response to people celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death in September.
Vance said at the time: “We have a first amendment in this country. The first amendment protects a lot of very ugly speech. But if you celebrate Charlie Kirk’s death, you should not be protected for being fired for being a disgusting person.”
The studio audience at The View erupted into applause as Hostin, after playing Vance’s remarks, went on to say: “And I agree with those sentiments. I think that if you celebrate someone’s death, you should be fired. I think it’s inappropriate — especially coming from the President of the United States.”
Trump’s ire for Mueller stemmed from the fact that the special counsel was appointed to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia during his first administration.
Guest host Abby Huntsman said on the show that Trump’s statements were a “rock bottom.” She said: “He can’t help himself, and he gets himself such trouble. It’s indefensible.”
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Whoopi Goldberg agreed, saying, “I listened to you guys clutch your pearls about what you thought was being said about Charlie Kirk. I listened to you. We felt for his family, and you don’t have the courage or … it’s not even empathy, just the decency to say, ‘You know what? Go with God. I didn’t like what he did… but Go with God.’
“That’s what we say about people we don’t like. We don’t like their politics, and we don’t like the person. ‘Go with God. I don’t like you, but God loves you.’ That’s what we do. That’s how America’s supposed to run, regardless of what God you’re talking about,” she said.
Ana Navarro pointed out that Trump also spoke poorly about the dead when he recognized the deaths of Senator John McCain and director Rob Reiner.
“This is who he is because he’s a mean person with a dark heart, verbal diarrhea, and no impulse control,” Navarro said. “He is 80 years old. He’s got obvious physical ailments. And there will be people that, when he passes away, as we will all pass away, will write these things and celebrate. If you don’t condemn it today from him, you don’t have a right to condemn it then from anybody.”