The View’s Abby Huntsman slams the White House for exploiting Kanye: ‘It was a spectacle for them’
"The View" hosts discussed the Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Kanye West, who went on an extended monologue that touched on a variety of seemingly unrelated topics.
Co-host Meghan McCain pointed out that West may have been reacting to the anniversary of his mother's death, and she compared his grief to her own.
"It feels like a part of your body has been amputated," she said. "I feel like two-thirds of my heart has been amputated, and I'm trying to figure out how to live with two-thirds of my heart gone. It's overwhelming. It's the way I imagine an addict has to stay on sobriety when they're sober."
McCain said she felt bad that West didn't seem to have any close friends to help him manage his grief, like she has in her own life.
"I have friends, I have God, I have pastors, I have my in-laws, I have my husband, I have therapists, everyone holding me and carrying through this," McCain said.
Co-host Abby Huntsman said the White House should have taken better care of their guest.
"Why wasn't the White House thinking more broadly about it," Huntsman said. "It was a spectacle for them. It was interesting, the optics, you had the president behind the desk, which he never is when he has a guest in the Oval Office."
Guest host Yvette Nicole Brown said it felt like the White House was exploiting West.
"It felt like they were using him," Brown said.
Huntsman agreed.
"That's what was sad to me," she said. "If they knew that this could get out of hand, which it did, why not protect him and protect yourself and say let's do this differently?"
Brown said she thought the president mocked West after he left.
"I also felt like when he left that there was laughter at his condition," Brown said. "This is a man that has mocked Dr. (Christine Blasey) Ford, a disabled reporter. Everyone has a name -- Kanye has a nickname. It's something that he calls them with his buddies, with Jared and Ivanka, and they had a little laugh at his expense. That's our shame because no one's helping. I don't know if he's open to help, but I just feel like this is a public cry for help, and he's not getting any help."