ABC News’ “The View” co-hosts engaged in a tense exchange on Wednesday as conservative co-host Meghan McCain clashed with liberal co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar about the border crisis, the partial government shutdown — and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rhetoric.
President Donald Trump delivered his first Oval Office address on Tuesday evening, which the major TV networks carried during prime time.
The address occurred amid a partial government shutdown, which resulted from Democrats’ refusal to give Trump the $5 billion in border wall funding he’s requested.
“Democrats in Congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis. And they have refused to provide our brave border agents will the tools they desperately need to protect our families and our nation,” Trump said.
But Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) delivered their joint rebuttals on Tuesday night after the speech, in which they again refused to fund the border wall.
Pelosi claimed that “much of what we have heard from President Trump throughout this senseless shutdown has been full of misinformation and even malice.”
Schumer, for his part, said, “The symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty, not a 30-foot wall.”
Goldberg (pictured above, far left) said, “The thing that continues to be a source of slight irritation for me” is Trump’s demand that American taxpayers foot the border wall funding bill.
“He said Mexico was going to pay for the wall. Now that’s what his promise was,” Goldberg said. “I don’t understand why, on top of everything else now, America has to pay for this wall. I don’t get it. I don’t like it. It’s B.S.”
McCain (above, far right) pointed to a recent Politico/Morning Consult poll showing that 79 percent of U.S. voters believe there is an illegal immigration problem at the southern border.
McCain also warned Democrats against acting “crazy” in their fight against effective border security.
In particular, McCain pointed to Ocasio-Cortez’s tirade against ICE on Tuesday night on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
“The president should be really defending why we are funding such an agency at all, because right now, what we are seeing is death,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Right now, what we are seeing is the violation of human rights.”
McCain said, “And when I see people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doing her own rebuttal — which by the way was far more concise than Chuck and Nancy — on Rachel Maddow last night, and she was basically demonizing border agents and ICE, the problem is whether liberals like it or not, border security is a big issue for Americans. It’s one of the reasons why Trump got elected.”
Goldberg butted in: “I don’t think anyone has any problem with the border security. I don’t think that’s the issue. It is the wall that I think the Democrats — ”
McCain interrupted her, saying, “When you are talking about getting rid of ICE, which is what she was referencing … it’s now become one of the trends on the far Left that is coming toward the middle.”
Hostin claimed that “most Democrats believe in border security.”
“I think this crisis is perhaps a humanitarian crisis, but it’s a crisis started by this president because this president is the one that separated families,” Hostin said.
Behar (above center) claimed, “There are still children who are kept in cages at the border. Two children have died. To me that is a humanitarian crisis.”
Behar believes that Trump “started” the policy of separating illegal immigrant children from their families at the border.
But this is not true.
“That actually, that policy, was started under Obama, which we said that numerous times on this show,” McCain correctly highlighted.
Behar insisted, “Obama did not separate children from their parents. Don’t say that.”
McCain replied, “It was a policy that was put in place under President Obama that President Trump decided to enact.”
“What I’m trying to tell you is if Democrats want to win in 2020, don’t demonize people that want hard border security. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a huge voice in the party talking about …”
But Goldberg — who ranted about Ocasio-Cortez earlier this week — interrupted McCain because she took issue with the credit McCain gave Ocasio-Cortez, saying, “She’s not a huge — please stop there. She’s not a huge voice in the party.”
As McCain claimed, “She looks awkward as all holy hell” — the segment abruptly came to an end.
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