‘The View’ vs. Donald Trump Jr.: Loud, Low Blows, Politics, Scandals And Great TV

Greg Evans of Deadline wrote:Whoopi Goldberg wouldn’t say his name, Sunny Hostin said he was lying, Abby Huntsman accused him of using “dictator” tactics. And Donald Trump Jr. gave it back, accusing Joy Behar of once wearing blackface and resurrected Goldberg’s defense of Roman Polanski as not committing “rape rape,” all in a 48-minute, high-decibel, cross-talking segment of possibly the most heated episode of The View since Rosie (O'Donnell) took on Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Even a calm, conservative, non-Trumpian Meghan McCain could barely contain her anger over President Donald Trump’s and Jr.’s comments about Gold Star families and her late father Sen. John McCain, saying “You and your family have hurt a lot of people. Does all of this make you feel good?”

No said Trump Jr., accompanied by girlfriend and former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, then quickly ignored McCain’s plea for “civility.” (Earlier in the show he said being a Trump was not “all peaches and cream.”)

When Behar brought up his father’s statements and mockery of “Mexican rapists,” the handicapped, the Access Hollywood genitalia grabbing scandal, and insisting that Americans “don’t want a country like that,” Trump launched into the blackface accusation and Polanski. (For the record, a 29-year-old Behar dressed as an African queen, using make-up to slightly darken her skin; she did not appear in traditional blackface). Behar vehemently denied that the cosmetics were “blackface.”

(After the show, RNC’s rapid response director Steve Guest tweeted the photo of Behar “wearing blackface.” As Goldberg said to Jr., “I know blackface when I see it and that was not blackface.”)

As Trump finished his comments on blackface and Polanski, a clearly angry Goldberg said, “I guess this is the fight you want” and “Are you questioning my character?” Trump said no, and then launched into how the media attacks his father’s character.

Taking up all but 10 minutes of the episode (a tribute to Barbara Walters was the opener), the segment began with Goldberg explaining that “this table” has welcomed thousands of guests with diverse points of view with the aim of engaging in “passionate, hopefully productive” conversation, and “with all that in mind, please welcome the son of the gentleman in the White House, DJT and Kimberly Guilfoyle.”

The conservative Huntsman got the conversation started, sounding really miffed over Trump Jr.’s tweet yesterday outing the Impeachment Whistleblower. “The whole point in releasing a name is to intimidate someone, threaten someone, and to scare other people from coming out. That’s something dictators do. I’ve lived in China, I’ve seen it firsthand. That’s not what America does.”

Trump defended his action by saying the “reality” was that the name had already been disclosed by “a little website called The Drudge Report” and that he was just quoting the article. And besides, he pivoted, where was the outrage when his own family received an “exploding letter” filled with “white powder?” The media, he said, does not operate on a “level playing field” of outrage. And no, he said later about the outing, “I don’t regret doing it.”

And then he made a rather non sequitur pivot by saying that The View’s network ABC is “busy chasing down all of the [Jeffrey] Epstein stuff because those stories were killed.”

Then lots of mostly indecipherable crosstalk until Goldberg halted it, reminding everyone to stay on topic.

Trump immediately went back to the media’s “hypocrisy,” plugging that it was why he wrote the book.

The hypocrisy charge brought Huntsman back to the game, noting that Trump Jr. and his father were “fine” with the “cyber-terrorist” and “Russian puppet” Julian Assange blowing his own whistle.

Guilfoyle took that one: Impeachment has been a concerted effort since Trump took office.

Said Goldberg, ”We are an opinion show, that’s what we do. What you seem to have done and feels very disingenuous because you can’t say I’m a private citizen and yet you are in the middle of all this.”

When Trump denied that outing a whistleblower is a crime, lawyer and co-host Sunny Hostin shot, “That’s a lie.”

What followed was a continued heated debate on such topics as dad’s Ukrainian phone call’s “transcript” (Jr’s word), quid pro quo, Hunter Biden and why Gordon Sondland revised his impeachment testimony with negative information about the president.

Said Behar, “He’s afraid of going to jail.” Said Trump, “He’s afraid of the vicious Left.”

Eventually, Goldberg worked the conversation to Mitch McConnell’s pledge to make sure Obama was a “one-term president.”

“Part of being a president,” she said, “is having a pair so that he can take whatever comes toward him.”

Said Trump, “My father’s got a pair.”

Eventually there was loud talk of emoluments, cancel culture, and nepotism, with Jr. acknowledging that, yes, “I’m the son of a rich guy from New York.”

Quipped Behar, “Not that rich.”