“The View” co-hosts debated the GOP’s apparent “identity crisis” on Thursday after U.S. representatives Kevin McCarthy and Liz Cheney gave their opinions about Trump headlining this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.
“These people are out of step with Americans,” Joy Behar stated, referring to Republicans. “They need to get their party together and start to act like a normal group of people instead of a bunch of Trump worshipers.”
Whoopi Goldberg showed a clip of McCarthy and Cheney during a CSPAN press conference, where they were asked what they thought about Trump’s involvement in CPAC. McCarthy was quick to agree that Trump should be speaking, while Cheney kept her own firm opinions, saying that after the Capitol riots, she doesn’t believe he should still be playing any kind of role in the party.
Behar went on to praise Cheney for standing her ground during the exchange, calling her a “Margaret Thatcher level of tough.”
“She’s giving them a way out. She’s saying to them, we need to rebrand,” Behar continued. “We made a deal with a devil and the devil won’t go away. And if we would rebrand our party, we might have a chance in the future.”
“Liz Cheney is offering them the more traditional brand of conservatism, but because Trump has a stranglehold on the party, I don’t know that her brand of conservatism can withstand those other factions in the party,” Sunny Hostin said, referencing how divided the GOP has become with anti-Trump individuals like Cheney and Mitch McConnell and extremist Pro-Trumpers like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz.
“I do think Liz Cheney was very bold there,” Sara Haines added. “In that moment, in that kind of press conference, someone could have thrown that question in and she could’ve said no comment or walked away. And she doubled down and then even specified after the incident of January 6th, this is what I think. So I think she does represent a kind of hope for me that there will be people who come out with old conservative ideals and break with Trump.”
“I am slightly hopeful with the Liz Cheneys of the world,” Haines said. “But right now it looks like it’s still a Trump universe.”
Watch the clip below.
GOP LEADERS CLASH OVER TRUMP AND CPAC: Former Pres. Trump is Sunday’s keynote speaker at CPAC and members of Congress like Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Liz Cheney are split on him being the headliner —the co-hosts react. https://t.co/9jW2B47MLE pic.twitter.com/5XG0bHYK0y
— The View (@TheView) February 25, 2021