The hosts of ABC midday talk show “The View” were forced to clarify remarks from Monday’s show — made primarily by Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar — claiming that neo-Nazis had been allowed into the previous weekend’s Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
As the hosts wrapped up the first segment of Wednesday’s broadcast, Goldberg brought the conversation to a halt so that cohost Sara Haines could read a legal note ahead of the commercial break.
WATCH:
Wherein "The View" *kind of* clarifies their outrageous claims that Neo-Nazis were accepted at @TPUSA event — and then blows that off by suggesting that inviting @mattgaetz was worse … pic.twitter.com/sGVKikvuXB
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) July 27, 2022
“On Monday we talked about the fact there were openly neo-Nazi demonstrators outside the Florida student action summit of the Turning Point USA group,” Haines read. “We want to make clear these demonstrators were gathered outside the event and that they were not invited or endorsed by Turning Point USA.”
“A Turning Point USA spokesman said the group 100% condemns those ideologies and said Turning Point USA security tried to remove the neo-nazis from the area, but could not because they were on public property. Also Turning Point USA wanted to clarify — wanted us to clarify this was a Turning Point USA summit and not a Republican Party event. So we apologize for anything we said that may have been unclear on these points.”
“They still invited Matt Gaetz though, I would just like to note,” guest cohost — and former member of then-President Donald Trump’s White House — Alyssa Farah Griffin pointed out.
During Monday’s broadcast, co-hosts Behar and Goldberg had suggested that TPUSA had effectively accepted the neo-Nazis when they did not force them to leave — and Goldberg suggested that they were even allowed inside the venue.
“Neo-Nazis were out there in the front of the conference with antisemitic slurs and, you know, the Nazi swastika and a picture of a so-called Jewish person with exaggerated features, just like Goebbels did during the Third Reich. It’s the same thing, right out of that same playbook,” Behar said.
“You let them in and you knew what they were, so you are complicit,” Goldberg accused — but later, upon being called out for her blatantly false statement, added, “My point was more metaphorical, that you embrace them at your thing, I felt. So I just — they were not in the building … They were not in the building; they were in the mix of people at the thing.”
TPUSA followed with a “cease and desist” letter addressed to ABC and stating, in part, “The false statements of fact intentionally made during The View’s July 25th segment were unquestionably harmful to TPUSA’s reputation and brought the organization and its student affiliates into disrepute with the public, potential donors, and current and future business partners, posing a significant financial loss to the organization.”
The letter demanded a retraction of any and all defamatory statements made during Monday’s broadcast.