'The View' hosts clash over Trump town hall, ask if CNN 'passing out Kool-Aid to the audience'
Co-host Joy Behar asked, 'Why would CNN put people who love him in the audience?'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The "View" hosts argued over CNN's town hall with Donald Trump on Thursday as co-host Sunny Hostin doubled down on her claim that the former president and current Republican front-runner for 2024 shouldn't get a platform.
"For me, CNN showed me they were a ball-free zone," co-host Whoopi Goldberg began.
Co-host Joy Behar said she was wrong to say that CNN should have aired a town hall with the former president.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I was wrong. She said they shouldn’t show him and I said they should, because I’m a big defender of the First Amendment, and everybody should show who they are, let’s vote accordingly, but what I didn’t know was that the audience would be filled with his cult. I would like to know if CNN was passing out Kool-Aid before the event started," Behar said.
"The View" co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin spar over CNN's Trump town hall. (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)
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"Why would CNN put people who love him in the audience? If I do a comedy show, everybody loves me, I’m going to be funnier. That’s how it works. But if you have people who don’t particularly think you're that funny, you have to work harder. That’s what I saw last night. I saw a bad stand-up comedian with a bunch of people in his cult who love him. And that’s not American, as far as I’m concerned. That’s not American," Behar continued.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin disagreed and said this is "democracy" and that 74 million people voted for Trump, who remains the GOP front-runner.
"He didn’t win a single voter. That was radioactive for independents and moderates, it's not the media's job to decide who's going to be the president, who should get a platform," she said.
Griffin also said that CNN's Kaitlan Collins did a "masterful job."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former President Trump lashed out at CNN's Kaitlan Collins, calling her a "nasty person" during a heated exchange about his handling of classified documents. (Screenshot/CNN)
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Hostin, after questioning Griffin and declaring that it took Collins too long to rebuke him, said the CNN host wasn't prepared.
"I don’t think that she was prepared. I don’t think he should have been given a platform. I was wondering when he was going to be fact-checked in real time," Hostin said as Griffin noted Collins fact-checked him on the "very first question."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Well, I think she needed a producer in her ear. And I think we needed a chyron, ‘this is a lie, this is a lie, this is a lie, this is a lie.’ That is what the media's job is, the media's job is to hold their feet to the fire and to get at the truth," Hostin added.
Co-host Sunny Hostin fumed at CNN on Wednesday for hosting a town hall with Donald Trump. (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)
Co-host Sara Haines argued that viewers of the town hall deserved more credit.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I thought it was a good idea to have it, and I still think it’s a good idea, because much like Alyssa, I don’t think that’s our job, out to push back, ask questions. I’ve been reading a slew of articles of all the fact-checking that had to be done, because what Kaitlan couldn't have done in that time is that, is once she’s checked him twice it becomes a down spiral, so to explain the Chinese inflation, you know, watching a lot of people know — I didn’t need a real time fact-checker to tell me he was incoherent, crazy, made no sense, and was attacking her nonstop. I don’t need somebody to break that down for me. I give viewers a little more credit than that," she said.