In an attempt to make up for the cancellation of conservative author Ann Coulter’s scheduled speech at the University of California in Berkeley in mid-April, the co-hosts on The View invited her to be on the Monday, May 1, edition of ABC’s weekday program.
While the discussion started off on a friendly note, it quickly degenerated into an argument regarding such topics as Donald Trump’s poll numbers, the president’s intent to cut taxes and his promise to complete a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
During the first segment of the interview, comedian Joy Behar stated: “We believe in free speech here,” and Whoopi Goldberg declared: “Berkeley, you made a mistake, man. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. That’s the law.”
But the second part of the discussion included an assertion by the co-hosts about the president‘s low approval ratings. Coulter defended him by saying: “I think polls, apparently, don’t work in the age of Trump” since he was expected to lose last year’s election to Democrat Hillary Clinton by a wide margin and won instead.
At another point, the conservative guest stated: “Journalists weren’t reading his immigration policy paper. He actually put out one entire policy paper on nothing but how Mexico will pay for the wall.”
Panelist Jedediah Bila asserted:
But he didn’t say it, and he’s the president of the United States. The thing is Republicans do this all the time, and you know they stink at messaging.
So putting some piece of paper out there somewhere for someone to read is not the same as being put on the spot and being able to handle that question.
The president “put out one piece of paper recently outlining his tax reform plan, right, in very broad strokes,” co-host Sunny Hostin noted, but “it could save corporations trillions of dollars, which would directly benefit the Trump family and Trump’s businesses. Does that at all bother you, and does it bother you we haven’t seen his tax papers?”
“It totally doesn’t bother me that we haven’t seen his tax papers,” Coulter said. “I think he enjoys driving the press crazy.”
“You don’t think he has anything to hide in there?” Behar asked.
“No,” the conservative columnist answered abruptly before agreeing with Hostin that she didn’t understand “why we’re talking about tax cuts because he didn’t campaign on tax cuts. That’s every other Republican.”
“You’re a lawyer,” Hostin responded. “Does it bother you -- ?”
“That he wrote it on a napkin?” Coulter joked.
“That his family and himself could benefit,” Hostin growled. “I mean, isn’t that unconstitutional? Isn’t that the emoluments clause” -- which forbids federal officials from accepting any present, office or title of any kind from any king, prince, or foreign state -- “plain and simple?”
When Coulter started to say “No,” Hostin said: “You learned that in law school, Ann!”
“It helped Ronald Reagan’s family to end the Evil Empire,” the syndicated columnist replied. “They wouldn’t have to worry about getting nuked. It was a general policy that was good for the country; no, there’s no problem with that.”
“I don’t want to help corporations generally. I want to help the working class, and so does Donald Trump,” she said before the audience jeered.
At that point, Goldberg awkwardly got back into the debate:
So let me ask you this: Does it bother you -- I understand he likes to drive the press crazy and stuff; what about the people? Does it bother you that the people don’t really understand -- ? Even people who didn’t vote for him, they want to understand what he’s doing. He is their president.
“If anything, I think the people are supporting him quite a bit,” Coulter responded. “I keep taunting him, you know, on number of miles built of the wall every day: zero. Miles built since the inauguration: zero.”
“And I must tell you, if anything, the people love him too much (which drew laughter from the audience) and are not complaining when he doesn’t keep his promises.”
“Well, maybe it’s all the people who he called rapists and murderers and all that other stuff,” Goldberg replied. “Maybe they’re the people I’m talking about.”
Like many other liberal Democrats, Goldberg believes Trump called all Mexicans who come to this country “rapists and murderers,” when he actually stated those individuals are included in the many people crossing the border.
“But they’re not Americans,” Coulter stated.
“Oh, wait, wait, wait! No, no!” Goldberg responded. “There are lots of folks of Mexican descent who are Americans.”
“Trump was talking about illegal aliens,” the author then asserted as the segment ended.
Coulter brought a breath of fresh air into a program usually dominated by liberal views, but she did so well that it might be a long time before she’s invited back into the lions’ den.
