The hosts of The View decided to use a visual aid to respond to the second “Hot Topic” discussion of the day on Wednesday (June 3).
When the subject of embattled Senate candidate Graham Platner came up — for the second time, since it was also discussed earlier in the week — they reviewed footage of the political reactions to his scandals, including a moment when Donald Trump called Platner a “sleazebag.”
When the reel ended, the board continued to be lit up — this time, with a photo of a pot and a kettle, evoking the age-old “pot calling the kettle black” colloquialism.
As Whoopi Goldberg pointed to the picture, the live audience roared in laughter.
Guest host Kara Swisher then joked, “When he said that, I thought, ‘Well, he’d know.”
“‘Sleazebag’ is such an ’80s term,” Sara Haines joked.
“He’s kind of stuck in the ’80s a bit,” Goldberg agreed.
From there, the conversation took a serious tone, as Goldberg said, “There has to be people out there who have not been accused of wearing bad tattoos or feeling people up. It’s just, there’s got to be a change out there. Come on y’all, y’all need to run! Come on.”
Swisher then argued, “Obviously, he’s a troubled person. He’s done a lot of bad things. He had a drinking problem… but you’re either going to be effective or you’re going to lose.” She added, “Democrats do hold themselves to a higher standard in this regard, but as far as I’m concerned, the people of Maine are the ones who should decide who they want, and if they forgive this guy, and that’s part of the idea of it, that’s fine.”
Sunny Hostin, who admitted she was “on the fence” before about Platner, then explained that she would “hold her nose” and vote for him if she was a Mainer because, “I’m now convinced that we are really in a bad place in this country. Democrats have to take over the Senate. They have to take over the House. They have to bring some semblance of normalcy back.”
Haines said she “vehemently disagreed” with Hostin and contended she would vote for the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins, instead. “If we are going to say, ‘Donald Trump is a problem, look at this person, look at this,’ we can’t plug our nose and send someone there that is an anti-Semitic person, racist, bigoted, sexting, you name it.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin then argued that the Democrats don’t have to run Platner for the position. “I’m just so deeply uncomfortable with the fact that it feels like we have Nazis to the right of me and Nazis to the left.”
Hostin then drew audience applause by noting, “The president is a 34-time convicted felon.”
Goldberg ultimately repeated her contention that, “We, at some point, should think about doing better on both sides. I think there’s a better caliber on both sides.”
The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC