Ladies of ‘The View’ Have Intense Face-Off Over Kavanaugh Allegations

Things got heated Monday on ABC News’ “The View,” when the co-hosts clashed over the timing and veracity of a woman’s public 11th-hour sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

“When you look at sort of the series of events and her allegations, I find them to be very credible,” co-host Sunny Hostin began.

“Let’s face it — this is a lifetime appointment. And I think that morality and a moral compass is very important when it comes to a lifetime appointee to the Supreme Court. [Kavanaugh] is going to be opining on a lot of issues that affect women, and we need to hear from her.”

Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in northern California, disrupted the final days of Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, when she came forward publicly with her allegations against President Donald Trump’s nominee through an article Sunday in The Washington Post.

Ford claims Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens during a party some 35 years ago.

Although Ford initially accused the judge anonymously in July when she detailed her allegations to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) through her congressional representative, Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), she came forward publicly Sunday.

Feinstein fielded criticism for her decision not to air Ford’s anonymous allegations until so late in the traditional Senate confirmation process.

Kavanaugh “categorically and unequivocally” denied the anonymous allegations against him and released an additional statement on Monday after Ford came forward.

He called it “a completely false allegation” and insisted, “I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone.”

“[Ford] also took a lie detector test. Maybe [Kavanaugh] should take a lie detector test. At least we’ll see, you know, something from that,” co-host Joy Behar (shown above, far right) said to a round of applause from the audience. “Plus, we have this allegation from a rather credible witness.”

“So what is the rush? This is a lifetime appointment. [Republicans are] afraid that if we wait until after the midterms and you have a Democratic Congress in the majority, that they will never put [Kavanaugh] through,” Behar added. “And they’re like, ‘This is our last chance to really stack the court with a conservative judge’ — judges, most of them.”

But things began to get heated after conservative co-host Abby Huntsman (above center) chimed in during the discussion of Ford’s allegations.

“This is a serious allegation from this woman. We live in a different time where if you’re a Republican senator you can’t say, no, we just have to vote and we can’t hear her side of the story. Democrats knew that,” Huntsman said. “Right now, we’re hearing two completely different stories.”

“What frustrates me, though, is the politics of all this,” Huntsman continued. “Dianne Feinstein had this letter where this woman anonymously details what she went through. It seems as if the Democrats put this in a drawer and said, this is big and this is going to benefit us if we use the time perfectly.”

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg (above far left) immediately pushed back, insisting Feinstein kept Ford’s allegations confidential because Ford requested she do so.

“But the bottom line really is, you know, the Democrats couldn’t win with this one. If they brought it out in July, people would have said, oh, you’re bringing it out to hurt [Kavanaugh] because he’s a friend of the president,” Goldberg argued. “If they waited … people would have said, ‘Oh, you’re doing it because it’s political.’ I don’t think anybody could have won here.”

Huntsman held her ground, replying, “It does feel political to me, and I think that’s what a lot of people hate about politics.”

Related: Ken Starr Harbors ‘Deepest Concerns’ About ‘Fairness,’ Timing of Kavanaugh Allegations

Behar rejoined the argument, insisting, “Isn’t it about time the Democrats played hardball? Come on.”

Goldberg didn’t think Democrats were playing “hardball” — and Hostin argued that the timeline “really doesn’t support that the Democrats somehow kept this a secret intentionally to sort of drop a surprise.”

But Huntsman reiterated that Ford “clearly wanted somebody to know, even anonymously.”

“I find the timing very political,” Huntsman warned. “We need to hear it out and obviously people can make that judgment. But I think I probably speak for a lot of people where it’s frustrating that it had come out when it did.”

As a result, Democrats now know that “if you bring” sexual assault allegations out “the week before” the Senate is scheduled to vote on a Supreme Court nominee, “Republicans have no choice and now they’re not going to have another nominee until after the midterms,” she lamented.