The View goes ‘insane’ trying to unravel GOP’s mind-bending impeachment conspiracies
Whoopi Goldberg and Abby Huntsman (ABC)

Panelists on "The View" questioned their own sanity while trying to make sense of the theories House Republicans threw out to defend President Donald Trump against impeachment.


The four panelists, minus an absent Meghan McCain, were thoroughly confused by GOP arguments against the evidence presented in the first public hearing of the impeachment inquiry -- where Ukraine ambassador Bill Taylor revealed the president was overheard discussing investigations of Joe Biden with the EU ambassador by phone.

"Here's the craziest part of that call," said co-host Abby Huntsman. "It's an incredible breach of security."

EU ambassador Gordon Sondland, according to Taylor's testimony, spoke to Trump by phone from a Kyiv restaurant, and Huntsman said Russia almost certainly had tapped the unsecured line -- and could use the call as blackmail.

"It makes me so angry because you have these guys that give you money for your campaigns and you're, like, let's make you EU ambassador, but you have no idea how to do diplomacy," Huntsman said. "Do you think the Russians are on every one of your calls? My dad (former Russian ambassador Jon Huntsman) would say, let me talk to you in person. He understands and he knows. So the Russians, they have that in their back pocket and they can throw that out whenever they want."

Host Whoopi Goldberg called out GOP lawmakers for representing one man -- the president -- instead of their constituents or the American people.

"My question is, who are y'all representing?" she said. "Who are you representing? You're not representing Republicans, because real Republicans say, Hey, that is not okay -- quid pro quo does not work for us constitutionally. It doesn't work for us visually. It's wrong. Real Republicans are saying that."

"These new people who maybe ate some Republicans and took their face or something," she added, "because I don't know what those folks are. I have never seen anything like this where I have begun to wonder about who they represent and what they're doing."

Huntsman remained stuck on the Ukraine phone call, which was overheard by an embassy staffer who is scheduled to testify Friday.

"These are the same Republicans that were irate when (President Barack) Obama had that secret conversation with another leader," she said. "If you are upset about that, and not upset about the Ukrainian phone call, then I'm living in the craziest world of all time. I feel like we have the facts, and people are not admitting that it's real. It's insane!"

Co-host Sunny Hostin said every one of their arguments was topsy-turvy.

"It's also insane to me they kept on saying this is hearsay, this is hearsay," Hostin said. "Well, Linda Tripp, remember (President Bill) Clinton was impeached because of Linda Tripp's testimony, which was complete hearsay. She was on a phone call that was taped."

Co-host Joy Behar then broke up the segment with a joke.

"She was not under the desk with Monica (Lewinsky), let's put it that way," she said, and the audience burst into laughter.

Hostin tried, unsuccessfully, to bring the discussion back on topic.

"We're in an alternate universe, right?" she said, as the audience continued laughing.