There were a lot of “Hot Topics” for The View hosts to sift through during Friday’s (September 20) live episode. First, they talked about the controversy surrounding the Republican candidate for the North Carolina governor’s race who’s been mired in scandal. Then, they talked about Oprah Winfrey’s star-studded campaign rally for Kamala Harris and whether celebrity endorsements like this are helpful. Things got particularly heated, though, when it came to the resurfaced subject of former first lady Melania Trump’s provocative photos.
The subject of Trump’s nude photo shoot(s) was brought back up by the former FLOTUS herself in a passage from her new book in which she decried perceived negative reactions to the images: “Why has the media chosen to scrutinize my celebration of the human form in a fashion photo shoot?” she wrote, with a video relating her “art” to the classics like the statue of David.
“You know you gotta love the little birther,” Joy Behar said, referencing Trump’s participating in the so-called “birther” movement, largely championed by her husband, that questioned Barack Obama’s American citizenship. “And we all appreciate the female body, Melania. Listen, your husband respected Stormy Daniels’ body plenty, am I right?” Naturally, this first comment drew quite a reaction from the crowd and her fellow cohosts.
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“It’s more the hypocrisy of it,” Sara Haines added on a more serious note. “The Republican party has long ridden the family values, the purest people, the judgment on everyone else’s lives, from banning books to shutting down drag performances.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin had a different perspective on the matter, saying that she agreed with Trump’s statements in the book, but added, “What I was surprised by is I don’t know any serious person who’s been criticizing her for this in over a decade.” Still, she reiterated that if there were people on the “left” knocking Trump for her photos, “I don’t think you defeat misogyny, sexism, slut-shaming, by engaging in it.”
To that, Sunny Hostin got fired up and responded, “These are erotic, nude photos. The same thing that took down Vanessa Williams, okay?”
Griffin stuck by her statement, though, saying that while she agrees it can be seen as hypocritical, “Do you defeat ills in society by engaging in the same ills?”
“I think you should confront the hypocrisy,” Ana Navarro firmly responded. “And you call it out when you see it.”
When Griffin tried to clarify that there’s a difference between calling out hypocrisy and criticizing Trump for the actual photos, Navarro continued, “I’m one to call it out every single time I see it. When I see somebody that calls themselves the party of God and the party of religiousness supporting Donald Trump, I’m gonna call out the hypocrisy.”
Griffin wasn’t done, though, and pointedly asked: “Do you have a problem with slut-shaming, though?”
“Not a bit!” Navarro responded. “I have a problem with hypocrisy.”
The View, Weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC
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