The White House has fired back at Joy Behar after The View co-host joked about President Donald Trump and his war on Iran.
The comedian, 83, made the remark Wednesday during the ABC morning show’s panel discussion about the ongoing war in the Middle East, including Trump’s statement that Iran gifted the U.S. “a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money.”
Behar quipped, “What’s the gift, besides herpes?”
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly,hours after Behar’s comments during Wednesday’s episode: “‘Joyless’ Behar is an extremely unlikeable, talentless hack with a poorly rated TV show who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Ingle’s statement further defended Trump, 79, and his initiatives in Iran, saying: “Operation Epic Fury continues to prove it is a resounding success, which is destroying the rogue Iranian regime’s national security threat to the American people. Iranian retaliatory attacks have declined by 90 percent because the Department of War is destroying Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities.”
He claimed the President is “working tirelessly every single day to ensure the American military continues to be the greatest, most powerful fighting force in the world that will crush our enemies and defend our great Nation.”
Representatives for The View did not return The Independent’s request for comment.
Behar didn’t stop at the first quip, later saying to the show’s conservative guest co-host Abby Huntsman: “Don’t make it sound like I’m against the military. I’m not. All my uncles, my father, they all fought, so don’t make it sound like that. I’m talking about this particular, as he calls it, excursion into Iran. What have they accomplished so far?”
“We don’t know the intelligence he got,” Huntsman responded. “That’s the problem. They haven’t communicated that.”
Behar fired back, “The word intelligence and him in the same sentence should not go together.”
Trump’s war on Iran has sparked several debates on The View since it began February 28.
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Panelists’ discussion of the joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran sparked a heated discussion earlier this month between the regular co-hosts and guest Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Just last week, guest co-host Sara Eisen defended Trump’s decision to start the war with Iran, which prompted laughter from the audience.
Although Ingle claimed ABC’s morning show is “poorly rated,” the network’s March 20 press release put The View at the top spot “in households and total viewers among all daytime network talk shows.”