Liberal co-host Joy Behar of ABC’s “The View” ripped TV star Ellen DeGeneres on Thursday for defending her chummy appearance with former President George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys football game last weekend.
Behar claimed she could never see herself doing something similar with the current occupant of the White House — and “hanging with Donald Trump.”
Behar said on the chat show, “I don’t see myself hanging out with Donald Trump any time in this lifetime” — which naturally got a big laugh from the appreciative and friendly audience of “The View.”
The TV show discussion among the hosts on this topic began on Thursday when Abby Huntsman, one of the co-hosts agreed with DeGeneres about embracing those you “disagree” with — something Behar said she doesn’t agree with “100 percent,” as Fox News noted in a piece about the conversation.
“I always said I didn’t want to get to know George W. Bush because I knew I would like him. I knew I would because he seems like a likable kind of guy,” Behar told the audience.
“But if you lost a child in Iraq, then you don’t like him so much,” added Behar.
“And I don’t see myself hanging out with Donald Trump any time in this lifetime,” she said.
“So it’s not only about disagreeing with somebody, which I certainly understand … It’s more than that,” she said.
Sunny Hostin, another co-host, agreed with that sentiment — even bringing up Bush’s stance on marriage equality during his presidency. “In 2004, when he was in a position to do something about it [gay marriage], he pushed for a constitutional amendment to make sure that marriage was defined as between a man and a woman,” she said.
“I think when you’re a woman like Ellen,” she also said, “and you came out and changed the lives of so many people in the LGBTQ community — I can understand why there were people that were put off by seeing her doing that.”
Actor Mark Ruffalo, for one, spoke out and said he had a big problem with Ellen’s friendship with Bush and her defense of it.
He said Bush should be “brought to justice for the crimes of the Iraq War” — and added, “We can’t even begin to talk about kindness” until that happens.
See his tweet with these comments.
Sorry, until George W. Bush is brought to justice for the crimes of the Iraq War, (including American-lead torture, Iraqi deaths & displacement, and the deep scars—emotional & otherwise—inflicted on our military that served his folly), we can’t even begin to talk about kindness. https://t.co/dpMwfck6su
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) October 9, 2019
DeGeneres herself spoke out about the backlash she’s received simply for sitting next to Bush at a pro football game.
She addressed her audience about it on Monday.
“Here’s the thing: I’m friends with George Bush,” she said.
“In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have.”
“We’re all different, and I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s OK that we’re all different … But just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be friends with them.”
Related: George W. Bush ‘Appreciated’ That Ellen Defended Their Friendship
“When I say, ‘Be kind to one another,’ I don’t mean only the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone. Doesn’t matter,” she said.
Bush, for his part, said he “appreciated” her comments.
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