Pro-Russia? Anti-vaxx? There's a chance you might end up in Joy
Behar's crosshairs on The View. Here are a few of her favorite celebrity targets.
Fans of The View can attest that Joy Behar has no qualms about taking on anyone who
gets her dander up and co-hosts are no exception to her fiery wit. One person
subject to her venom was Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a devout Republican. A 2008 episode featured
Behar making a case for terrorists to be treated as civilians in criminal court,
a suggestion that immediately upset Hasselbeck, who shot back,
Abortion has also been a hot-button issue between the two, with Hasselbeck staunchly
condemning the pro-choice movement, a position that frequently raised Behar's ire. A 2009
episode had Hasselbeck going on about the untapped potential of a fetus. She argued,
"It could have been Hitler, also. You never know!"
The issue remained hot in 2022 when the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade,
tying in with Hasselbeck's brief return to The View. As the only anti-choice panelist,
she admitted that Christianity could offer more mercy and less
judgment toward women experiencing a crisis. To which Behar retorted,
Of all the co-hosts with which Joy Behar sparred, the most formidable has been Meghan McCain,
a former Fox News employee, and daughter of the late Senator John McCain. It's a
pity that these two clashed frequently since they shared some common ground,
namely a mutual dislike for Donald Trump. In 2018, Behar admitted she liked Trump
until she determined he was a charlatan. Meanwhile, McCain deplored the man ever
since the former president said of her father, a former Vietnam prisoner of war,
Beyond that, however, any other hot topic was a donnybrook waiting to happen.
"As a Republican, I am offended."
"As a Democrat, I'm offended by Republicans."
The two threw down over socialism, border security of states touching Mexico,
the impeachment of Donald Trump, and pretty much anything that contrasted values between the left
and the right. Eventually, the arguments devolved into more personal confrontations,
including McCain calling her co-host a b---- live on-air, and Behar once telling her,
"If you're going to have a hissy-fit, we can't continue."
In January 2021, shortly after McCain returned to the show post-maternity leave
and at the height of yet another fracas, things came to a head.
"When I was on maternity leave you missed me so much. You missed fighting with me."
"I did not. I did not miss you. Zero."
"Oh my God."
The comment floored McCain, who reportedly cried during a commercial break and vomited
after the episode's final credits. Six months later, McCain left.
Considering that Joy Behar has gone on record supporting environmental initiatives to curb
climate change, it's easy to assume she'd be on a similar page to Elon Musk, the co-founder and
CEO of the electric vehicle company, Tesla. As it turns out, however, Behar is hardly sending
the billionaire annual Christmas greetings. When discussing him on The View, Behar said,
"You know, he is a self-important bore, okay?"
The remark was a response to Musk's declaration that
the pandemic had subsided enough to warrant his employees to stop working
from home and get back to the company offices for their weekly 40-hour grind.
She went on to add,
After Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, Behar was far less insulting. Still,
she had her doubts about the entrepreneur's commitment to free speech without turning
the social media site into what he called a hellscape. Behar was dubious, asking,
Long before the likes of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson dominated Fox News' primetime roster,
Bill O'Reilly was the ultimate right-wing pundit, holding court in his self-described
no-spin zone. In 2017, The View invited O'Reilly on for a hot-seat session.
It didn't take long before the seats started to smolder.
"Listen to me, because you'll learn."
"Pinhead. Pinhead."
O'Reilly declared that 70% of Americans objected to a mosque being built near the
footprint of the World Trade Center, prompting a furious Behar to question
the legitimacy of such a report. Then came the kicker: O'Reilly declared,
"Muslims killed us on 9/11!"
"No! Oh my GOD. That is so bulls---!"
Almost immediately, all hell broke loose. Behar and Whoopi Goldberg
unleashed their disdain for the Fox pundit's over-broad generalization,
including some bleeped verbosity. Behar then left the stage, followed by Goldberg.
After the dust had settled, Barbara Walters, the show's creator and ringmaster, let it be
known that she was hardly happy with how Behar and Goldberg had acted, stating to the audience,
Only after O'Reilly reluctantly apologized did the rest of the co-hosts return.
Anecdotally, it may be safe to say that Joy Behar has rarely been the target of a personality
launching a first-strike against her. But music wildman Kid Rock launched such an attack with
a swipe at the talk-show luminary during a 2018 Fox and Friends interview. Beginning with a rant
about political correctness, the country rocker finished with a double-edged plea,
"You know, love everybody except — I'd say screw that Joy Behar b----."
The semi-articulate remark surprised Behar, who never had the rocker on
her radar. She responded with only a subtle retaliatory vibe, saying,
"Well, all I can say is,
this b---- and these b----es will be happy to have you on the show and have a beer."
Still, Rock's ramblings puzzled the panelist,
"What is it about me that he feels the need to say that,
though? Who am I? I'm just a comedian on a show."
A year later, the tirades continued when TMZ shared a video of a seemingly drunk
Rock blasting expletives about Behar and Oprah Winfrey at his bar in Nashville.
When interviewed by Tucker Carlson as part of a series of specials recorded
to stream on Fox Nation, he remained unrepentant about his comments, stating,
Few topics have been as divisive as COVID-19 vaccinations during the pandemic. On The View
in 2021, the cast discussed CNN science contributor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta's appearance
on The Joe Rogan Experience. Vaccine advocate Joy Behar didn't seem afraid to lump Joe Rogan
in with the millions of vaccine deniers across America, whom she described as,
Addressing the podcaster's insistence that he wouldn't get the COVID-19 vaccine, she retorted,
"Yes, let's listen to a radio talk show host instead of a scientist and a doctor."
Even after Rogan apologized for any misinformation he may have
provided on his podcast related to COVID-19 and vaccines, Behar didn't buy any of it, musing,
Granted, Rogan's apology surfaced on the heels of artists like Joni Mitchell
and Neil Young pulling their music from his podcast publisher, Spotify.
"He purposely is saying this stuff that he knows
isn't true about COVID and people are dying, you know."
While those decisions may have caused the streaming giant to lose up to $4 billion
in market value, Behar was disappointed that more acts didn't follow suit, saying,
For years, Joy Behar has had it in for Donald Trump, going way back to the
days when the high-profile real estate developer was trying to put his name on
virtually every building in Manhattan. But when he hit White House paydirt in 2016,
Behar was loaded up and ready to go ballistic on the man. During a View reunion episode, she said,
The former president's takes on immigration, abortion, and the media, as well as incidents
that include two impeachments, an affair with a porn star, and an insurrection in the
wake of his 2020 election loss all provided fodder for Behar to bash the controversial
statesman with both barrels blazing. At one point, Behar even went so far as to state,
"He has the nerve to call anybody a domestic terrorist — he's the domestic terrorist." ]
However, she quickly retracted the label.
On the lighter side, Behar was quick to comment on
the disheveled state of Trump's slacks at a 2021 political rally, wondering,
"Are they on backwards? Where's the fly? I don't understand them."
A year later, Behar took aim at his former Twitter
feed with a swipe that somehow made it past the censors when she said,
While Donald Trump hasn't had much to say about Joy Behar's rants against him, his son,
Donald Trump Jr. has been particularly brutal about the panelist. In November
2019 with fiancée, Kimberley Guilfoyle on his arm, he appeared on The View,
ready to promote his book and to take on the co-hosts — Behar in particular.
When she squared off against the controversial guest regarding his
father's questionable political discourse, Don Jr. shot back,
A shocked Behar denied the allegation but was drowned out by the rest of the panel, which turned
out to be one of the more animated skirmishes in the show's history. To be fair, earlier that year
she'd stated that she'd once celebrated Halloween during the '70s dressed as an African woman. But
with millions watching, Don Jr.'s comment must have felt like a sizzling brand on her forehead.
More recently, he took particular glee in skewering Behar, who had suggested
that women enact a sex strike to prevent the Supreme Court from overturning Roe v. Wade.
"In 2003, a sex strike helped to end Liberia's brutal civil war,
and the woman who started it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."
On Instagram, he posted a meme of the star and suggested that such
an action led by her and her fellow View panelists wouldn't work, adding,
If Joy Behar has an enemies list, odds are most of the entries would have some association with
Fox News. Speaking about the news outlet's former star pundit, Glenn Beck, she's said,
Meanwhile, on Twitter in 2021, she wrote about primetime host, Sean Hannity,
But Behar has arguably dedicated much of her vitriol to Tucker Carlson. Fox's
most popular cable news pundit has frequently been taken to task by
outlets like The New York Times for his purported support of white nationalism.
Such discussion was only exacerbated in May 2022,
when a Buffalo teen who shot more than a dozen people in a store was found to
have kept a manifesto reflecting Carlson's perspectives on critical race theory. Behar
believed the mainstream media should stop covering Carlson's rants, saying,
Her jab came on the heels of another contentious Carlson declaration, this time involving his
initial support for Russian President, Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Behar retorted,