‘The View’ Hosts Appalled by Trump’s ‘Whether Women Like it or Not’ Statement

Amanda Bell October 31, 2024, 12:00 pm

The View cohosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin — ABC

After The View‘s cohosts spent the first “Hot Topic” segment of Thursday’s (October 31) show clowning on Donald Trump’s garbage truck ride stunt, they turned to another headline-making moment of his campaigning from the night before. In a speech delivered to supporters in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday evening, Trump resurrected a sentiment he’d shared before about wanting to be the “protector” of women — only this time, it was even more upsetting to the cohosts.

In the speech, Trump proclaimed, “My people told me about four weeks ago — I was saying ‘I want to protect the people, I want to protect the women of our country’ [and they said] ‘Sir, please don’t say that.’ ‘Why?’ They said, ‘We think it’s very inappropriate for you to say.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not.'”

Whoopi Goldberg issued the first incredulous reaction from the panel, saying, “When you say ‘whether you like it or not,’ that tells women a lot about you are and why they’re going to stay away from you. Yeah, see, because with you, clearly no doesn’t mean no.”

Sunny Hostin slammed him for “gaslighting” his followers, noting that he has been found liable in a civil court for sexual assault against E. Jean Carroll and ordered to pay her millions in damages, and he was found guilty of 34 felony charges connected to a hush money payment scheme stemming from his alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels. “When you think about that, that’s the guy who’s going to protect women? That’s the guy that’s gonna protect women’s rights? I mean, does he think that women are so unsophisticated that we don’t know what you’re saying?”

“He thinks we’re stupid,” Joy Behar answered. “He has no respect for women. Look at the way he treats women. He thinks we’re stupid. He thinks we don’t understand our own rights.”

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Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in to say that while she prefers more narrow access rights for abortions than some of her cohosts, she thinks he’s “misleading” supporters about his true views: “He was against the six-week ban [on the ballot] in Florida, and now he’s saying he’s for it, even though he said it went too far. He’s telling people different things to different audiences. He’s responsible for the Dobbs decision obviously, and I think people feel very confused by where he is.”

After Griffin pointed out the rising cases of women dying needlessly due to pregnancy-related health emergencies in states with restrictive abortion laws, Sara Haines demanded, “Let’s swing it back to realize you cannot make this up to the states if they’re willing to sacrifice every woman in that state.”

The View, weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC