The View Goes Off the Rails in Heated Clash Over Trump, Russia: ‘Let Me Finish!’
The View nearly spiraled out of control on Friday when the panel had a heated conversation about which presidential administrations have been the toughest on Russia, and which allowed Vladimir Putin to get away with his international misconduct.
It all started when the show talked about how Donald Trump is defending himself after Michael Cohen pled guilty for lying to Congress about the timeline for the president’s business endeavors in Moscow. As Ana Navarro talked about Trump’s frequent cozying-up to Putin, Abby Huntsman argued that on a policy level, the Trump Administration has been tougher on Russia than “any administration since the Cold War.”
“No one ever talks about the actual issues and what’s being done to combat Russia because that’s not the shiny object, no one cares about that. No one gives the president credit for anything that he does right.”
It’s worth noting: Huntsman’s father, Jon Huntsman, is Trump’s Ambassador to Russia.
Meghan McCain eventually jumped in by noting complimentary statements past presidents have made to Putin, but Sunny Hostin tried to bring the conversation back toward Mueller’s investigation into Trump and his family. When Hostin questioned whether Trump is really concerned about Russia’s recent seizure of Ukranian ships and sailors, Huntsman countered that Trump has done more to defend Ukraine than Barack Obama did in his presidency.
As Hostin and Huntsman collided over “cable pundits that think they know everything that’s going on behind closed doors on diplomacy,” Navarro re-entered the fray by invoking the country’s disapproval for Trump’s handling of Russia. Huntsman challenged her to “tell me what Obama did” on the recurring conflict between Ukraine and Russia, though Navarro swatted the interruption down with “let me finish my point!”
McCain brought the segment to critical mass by arguing that Obama “had nothing to do with” the Magnitsky Act, the bill her father proposed to economically punish numerous Russian officials.
Watch above, via ABC.
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