YouTube Donald Trump Jr. appears on The View to discuss his book "Triggered"
Donald Trump Jr. and President Trump’s senior 2020 campaign advisor Kimberly Guilfoyle appeared on The View today and the show was as contentious and argumentative as one would expect.
Trump Jr., never one to shy away from controversy, appeared on the show as part of the press tour for his book “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us”. His appearance was a recipe for an argument as The View hosts are known to have left-leaning political views and President Trump infamously feuded with Meghan McCain’s father John McCain.
The controversy started before he even appeared on the show. Joy Behar announced Trump Jr.’s appearance on the show last Friday while wearing a shirt with the slogan “Quid Pro Quo,” a reference to the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigateJoe Biden.
As Behar announced the appearance, which would occur on their 5,000th episode, show guest and GOP strategist Ana Navarro, a vocal critic of Trump who was appearing on the show, told her “I think you should wear that shirt Thursday,” to which Behar replied, “I don’t want to give the whole game away.”
Earlier in the same show, the panel commented on the “Witch Hunt” costumes that Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle wore for Halloween. “Maybe he should have worn a prison suit,” quipped Navarro. “Orange is the new black.”
It was clear that Don Jr. was headed into a hostile environment and the hosts were going to ask tough questions. His Thursday appearance didn’t disappoint. Things got heated almost immediately as the panel grilled Trump Jr. on everything from John McCain to his father’s treatment of political rivals to Ukraine and his outing of the whistleblower.
You can watch all of the clips below:
Donald Trump Jr. Defends His Decision to Reveal the Name of the Whistleblower
.@DonaldJTrumpJr defends his decision to share the name of the whistleblower on @TheView: “It’s not a level playing field.”
The interview starts off with Sunny Hostin confronting Don Jr. about his decision to retweet the name of the whistleblower who was the catalyst for the Trump impeachment hearing.
“You did something that triggered a lot of people yesterday, including myself, by releasing the name of the whistleblower,” Hostin said “The whole point of releasing a name is to intimidate someone, to threaten someone, to scare other people from coming out…that’s something that dictators do, that’s not what America does.”
Trump Jr. calls it a “fair question” and defends himself by saying that he quote tweeted an article from the Drudge Report that already released the name. He then says that it’s not a “level playing field” and that “there was no outrage when my family got an exploding letter with white powder substance in it”
@DonaldJTrumpJr @TheView .@DonaldJTrumpJr: “ABC is right now chasing down a whistleblower about all of the Epstein stuff because those stories were killed. So, if we’re going to have the conversation about the outrage about whistleblowers, you work with CBS.”
The hosts and Trump Jr. then go back and forth before he brings up the ABC whistleblower issue with ABC and the Epstein story in an attempt to point out the hypocrisy.
“ABC is right now chasing down a whistleblower about all of the Epstein stuff because those stories were killed. So, if we’re going to have the conversation about the outrage about whistleblowers, you work with CBS.”
Donald Trump Jr. Calls out Joy Behar for Wearing Blackface and Whoopi Goldberg for Defending Roman Polanski
.@DonaldJTrumpJr just shut down “The View.”
“Joy, you’ve worn blackface.”
Donald Trump Jr. got the hosts riled up by claiming that “no standing President has taken the heat that my father has.” Joy Behar responded by describing how President Trump has “lowered the political discourse” in the United States.
Trump Jr. quips that “we’ve all done things that we regret” and then points to each host, “Joy, you’ve worn blackface” he says “Whoopi, you said that Roman Polanski ‘it wasn’t rape rape’ when he raped a child.” The crowd goes uncomfortably silent as Whoopi defends her actions.
Whoopi also defends her co-host by saying she was “not in blackface” and tells Donald Trump Jr. “I simply said that when you’re talking about when your father has taken more heat than anybody else, that is not so.”
The show cuts to commercial before the argument has a chance to escalate any further.
Meghan McCain and Don Jr. Discuss Their Fathers’ Feud
@DonaldJTrumpJr @TheView .@MeghanMcCain: “Character in politics, I believe, is important. It was how I was raised.”
@sunny: “Your father attacked her father.”
@DonaldJTrumpJr: “I understand that and I’m sorry about that. They did have differences.”
The topic of John McCain was bound to come up during Trump Jr.’s appearance with Meghan McCain on the panel. They initially tried to dance around the topic with McCain telling Trump Jr. “Character in politics, I believe, is important. It was how I was raised.” Before asking him why he’s attacking gold star families.
Sunny Hostin interjects with, “Your father attacked her father,” to which Trump Jr. responds, “I understand that and I’m sorry about that. They did have differences.”
Kimberly Guilfoyle, who worked with John McCain for years, defends Trump Jr. and says “It breaks my heart to hear anybody say anything about your father. I understand that, I know how difficult it is. And I know how difficult it is for him when everybody is attacking his family.
@DonaldJTrumpJr @TheView @MeghanMcCain @sunny Things get emotional.
@kimguilfoyle to @MeghanMcCain: “It breaks my heart to hear anybody say anything about your father.”
“Try and bring civility back then,” says McCain, “You can do it”.
Trump Jr. Says He Spends “A Lot of Time” in Middle America and That “People Are Happy”
.@HuntsmanAbby: “Who do you hope runs against your dad?”
Donald Trump, Jr. on @TheView: “It doesn’t matter that much to me … I do spend a lot of time in middle America, I spend a lot of time there and honestly, people are happy.” t.co/gaK4yIkueb
Donald Trump Jr. told the panel that he “is the son of a rich guy from New York” and says he spends a lot of time in middle America and “people are happy”.
“You have no idea how many democrats come up to me and say ‘Don, I wish they would let him do his job'” He told the hosts.
Donald Trump Jr. Claims That Military Aid Wasn’t Withheld from Ukraine, Sunny Hostin Calls Him Out
When asked about the impeachment case, Donald Trump Jr. claimed on The View that nobody in Ukraine “knew that military aid was being withheld” in Ukraine.
“But that’s not true, that’s a lie,” host Sunny Hostin retorts, “Military aid was withheld.” She keeps repeating “that’s a lie” and Guilfoyle finally admits that the aid was withheld but that quid pro quo was “not the reason”.
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