'The View' hilariously rips Ben Stein for claim Trump is being persecuted by CNN

The women of "The View" had to talk about President Donald Trump's war on the media. What took them by surprise was former actor and Richard Nixon lawyer Ben Stein. In an interview with CNN, Stein claimed that Trump was being persecuted by the media and compared Trump to Nixon.

"So, the question is: is the media too tough on him?" Co-host Whoopi Goldberg whined. "I mean, he really set this tone years ago? I mean, he really liked the media when he kept insisting [President Barack] Obama wasn't born here."

Fellow co-host Joy Behar quoted Ben Stein from years ago in which he defended Nixon by claiming he was "wrongly persecuted."

"He's comparing Trump to the only president who resigned," Behar said. "A president who committed a felony and this is who he's comparing him to."

According to Sunny Hostin, Stein also told CNN that the media picks tiny things that Nixon did. "One, tiny thing," she also said in a whiny voice. "One, tiny, tiny, little thing that he did. One tiny thing, which was just to discuss a cover-up."

Even conservative Jedidiah Bila argued that Trump is playing into the "criminal" narrative by trying to attack the media for fake news, when that news is holding him to account for the Russian ties.

"Russia is not a small story," she continued. "Trump feeds into it. He's tweeting at people. It's one thing to have a general conversation about media bias. That's fair, we can do it. But it's another thing to say the media is here criminalizing Trump when he's played a role in a lot of those things. A lot of those questions they're asking, with respect to him, whether you like him or not, there are fair questions. That's what the media is supposed to do. The media isn't supposed to be your friend. It's supposed to be difficult. It's supposed to make life hard for you - supposed to ask tough questions. And if you don't like it you're not up for the job. Left or right."

Behar argued that Trump is working to inoculate himself against what will ultimately be found out about his ties to Russia.

You can watch the full discussion below: