The ladies of “The View” were mostly kind to Donald Trump following his performance as host of “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend.
On Monday’s episode of the ABC talk show, Whoopi Goldberg, Michelle Collins, Joy Behar, Raven-Symone and Paula Faris critiqued the Republican presidential candidate’s performance.
“The thing that this showed about Donald Trump is that he now has a sense of humor about himself,” said Behar. “[Before] you couldn’t make fun of his hair, he’d get upset about it. But now…”
Collins agreed, saying, “He’s self-aware enough. In a weird way that’s why I have a weird affection for him over some of these other maniacs. Even though he’s terrible and saying awful things, there’s like a kernel inside of him that I believe knows he’s being dumb you know.”
Symone was perhaps the least forgiving of the hosting gig, quoting a Facebook post from a “View” viewer that said this proved Trump could be an entertainer, not president. When asked why Hillary Clinton didn’t get the same kind of response when she’s appeared on “SNL” in the past, Symone replied, “I’m going to get in trouble here, but I take her seriously.”
The panelists were much harsher on Trump’s Republican challenger Ben Carson, refuting his claims over the weekend that he’s under more scrutiny than any other presidential candidate or public figure over things in his past.
“Didn’t Obama almost lose the nomination over Reverend Wright and the birther movement?” Faris brought up.
“This is part of the deal,” said Goldberg. “You think it’s a left-wing conspiracy or a right-wing conspiracy. It is what it is, man. If you’re in the public life, people are going to look into your stuff, which is why we say do your best to say the truth.”
The panelists took aim at his now-debunked story of getting a scholarship to West Point and debated whether such a renowned neurosurgeon would really be a pathological liar.
“They should put his books in the fiction section,” joked Collins. “If you remember when James Fray wrote ‘A Million Little Pieces’ and Oprah had him on and it was a story… guess what, his book was moved from non-fiction next to ‘The Cat in the Hat,’ and I think we should do the same with Ben Carson’s book.”