The View
'We can’t even get you to wear a mask': The View points out irony of GOP love for Putin's authoritarianism
February 23, 2022 12:01PM ET
Republican leaders and Fox News hosts have made news over the past several months in the lead-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine because they've sided with Vladimir Putin. Addressing the recent comments by former President Donald Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the co-hosts of "The View" couldn't understand it.
Trump said Tuesday: "I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, this is genius. Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine -- of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful. So Putin is now saying, it's independent, a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he's going to go in and be a peacekeeper. Here's a guy who's very savvy. I know him very well. Very, very well. By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened."
The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg shot back, "No, you would have sold the country." The audience responded with loud applause.
Her colleague Joy Behar called it "the dumbest remark" that the Republican Party members are buying that Trump would have solved the problem. "He would have said, 'Here is Ukraine. Take it. And I'm going to build a casino there any minute now.'"
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"He's not there," Sara Haines said about the censorship in Russia. "And he can say that, [but] if he were in Putin's Russia, Trump could be taken out with that."
Behar went on to say that from what she's read, there were people who didn't want the United States to get involved in World War II before Pearl Harbor, but they were never people who were walking around celebrating Hitler. After decades of fighting fascism, Behar was shocked to see the GOP siding with Russia now.
They then showed a clip of Carlson, who said that most of the claims against Putin are lies. One he quoted was the idea that Putin "eats dogs." It's unclear where such a conspiracy theory came from but it hasn't been reported anywhere.
"Does he inject bleach?" asked Behar, recalling the time Trump suggested people inject disinfectant to cure themselves of COVID.
"Well, I'm not surprised that they really love the idea of this because it kind of sounds like, you know, they're admiring a guy who rigs elections and is a sort of macho leader," Goldberg said.
"Rampant human rights violations," Behar agreed.
"And it does not -- it's a very, very Christian nation. And they are not good to LGBTQ people or people of any color, and it sounds kind of like this is -- this is what they would like to bond with," Goldberg continued.
Behar noted that 62 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents said that Putin is a stronger leader than Biden.
"If you are a dictator and you tell your people, 'We're doing this,' and that they jump to it, then you're a stronger leader?" she asked.
"We can't even get you to wear a mask! What are you talking about?" Goldberg asked.
See the discussion below:
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