The “Hot Topics” discussion went completely off the rails on Friday’s (January 9) edition of The View. As the cohosts discussed Donald Trump‘s recent authorization of an invasion of Venezuela to capture its president and his stated intention to acquire Greenland from Denmark, Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin got into a heated shouting match that caused the other panelists to intervene.
Moderator Joy Behar started the conversation by playing footage of some of the backlash to the Denmark purchase and/or invasion pitch by Republican Senator Thom Tillis before prompting the other panelists to answer, “Will more Republicans speak out or is that it? Also… why are they OK against Greenland but not Venezuela?”
Hostin was the first to answer, praising Tillis for his “forceful” and “strong” comments on the matter and adding, “Greenland is not owned by the United States, nor should it be owned. It’s not for sale. Neither is Venezuela, nor is its oil ours. We went in. We took the president. I call it kidnapping because I believe that’s what it is.”
As Navarro began to speak, Hostin acknowledged, “I know you disagree, but…” and then Navarro continued, “Yeah, but let’s look at the facts: Venezuela is a dictatorship. Greenland is not. Denmark is our ally. Greenland is our ally. We have military bases and operations in Greenland. Denmark is part of NATO, as we are. So we are part of one big alliance. Venezuela is a place where they kill, jail, and torture the opposition, where they repress human rights.”
As Behar and Hostin began to interrupt and counter her statement, Navarro continued, “My point is, we cannot make an equivalency between Greenland and Venezuela.”
From there, the crosstalk erupted, and Hostin raised her voice to say, “The law is the law. It was an unlawful thing that we did in Venezuela, and it would be unlawful for us to do it in [Greenland].”
As she then began to continue to react to Tillis’ comments, Hostin interrupted with, “I think you’re wrong,” to which Navarro snapped back, “OK, well I think you’re wrong.”
Navarro went on to discuss the merits of Tillis’ reaction, making some points that Hostin seemed to agree with, but then Hostin lashed back by arguing with her about whether it was illegal for Trump’s troops to seize Venezuela’s oil.
After the argument began to spiral, Behar tried to interrupt, saying, “Hey guys!” but she was unable to stop them from talking over one another. Then, Alyssa Farah Griffin was able to jump into the conversation, joking, “I’m eight months pregnant, can we just all have a chance to speak?!”
Griffin then backed up Navarro’s comments on the human rights abuses afoot in Venezuela and noted that is why some Republicans support the maneuver, and Sara Haines soon echoed that by saying she wasn’t directly opposed to the Venezuela move either.
“Everyone’s OK with breaking the law,” Hostin then said, dispirited.
The conflicted conversation continued with Navarro taking a calmer tone and acknowledging that it’s a “legitimate” question about whether the action in Venezuela was legal, but that it was made “moot” by the fact that it’s in the past. Navarro was still flustered enough to get the date wrong, noting that it was January 8 instead of 9 — which Behar corrected her and was likely a consequence of pretaping the episode — but Hostin was still aggravated and said, “The law should never be a moot point.”
Behar eventually concluded the segment by taking a jab at Trump’s business history, saying, “Trump will take Greenland, open a casino, and then bankrupt it.”
The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC
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