The co-hosts of ABC’s “The View” have weighed in on the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel and blamed President Donald Trump and his alleged lack of knowledge of of the First Amendment.
The panel criticized Trump over what he said an Air Force One. He said it is up to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to pull licenses those networks that make him look bad, per Mediaite.
“I read someplace that the networks were 97% against me. I get 97% negative, and yet I won easily, won all seven swing states, won everything, and — and then 97% against, you get only bad publicity or press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away. It would be up to Brendan Carr,” Trump said.
“No, it’s not up to Brendan Carr,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg countered. “It is not up to him. I don’t understand how you are the man in charge of the nation and you still don’t understand how the First Amendment works.”
Sunny Hostin, the sole attorney on the panel, gave her take on Freedom of Speech and democracy.
“You know, freedom of speech undergirds our democracy and our founders were clear on that,” Hostin said. “Our founders drafted the First Amendment to specifically protect the rights of citizens to criticize the government. Thomas Jefferson in particular said the citizens must be able to criticize officials because, quote, ‘they will try to impose their thinking and modes of thinking on others,’ unquote.”
She continued, stating this has been reinforced by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“And the Supreme Court time and time again has reinforced its support for the law of the land, the First Amendment. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” Hostin said.
Next up was Anna Navarro, who talked about her experience under dictatorships in Nicaragua.
“I don’t understand how in this country where the First Amendment made to the constitution was to guarantee freedom of the press and freedom of speech, the government itself is using its weight and power to bully and scare people into silence,” Navarro said. “Look, you know, I have to tell you this, I lived through a right-wing dictatorship in Nicaragua, Samoza, I lived through a left-wing dictatorship in Nicaragua under Ortega. This is what dictators do. It does not matter the ideology. At first, they come before the people with big platforms, at first they silence the press, but then they come for all of us because their intent is to scare us into silence and self-censorship.”
“Look at the things that this government has done. They kicked the AP out of the Oval Office for not saying Gulf of America. They cut the funding of NPR and the corporation for public broadcasting,” she continued. “They are demanding reporters sign a pledge that reporters will only report on what the Pentagon wants them to report on. That is not how the First Amendment works. And I will say to you all, to all of us, look. We have seen tech titans go into the Oval Office, we are seeing media moguls, publishers of newspapers, we are seeing all of them try to make the peace with Donald Trump.”
“A bully always comes back for more. So they need to stand up and we need to demand the same from ourselves,” she concluded.
Goldberg explained why the show hadn’t responded to Kimmel’s suspension until now.
“Did ya’ll really think we weren’t gonna talk about Jimmy Kimmel?” she said as she started the show.
Goldberg said they were waiting for Kimmel to respond, which was not done before Thursday’s show.
Friday’s show was on tape.
The entire segment was posted on YouTube after the show aired.
Watch:
