On Wednesday, ABC’s The View played its part in the damage control operation to defend New York Times editorial board writer Mara Gay after she explained how she was “disturb[ed]” and frightened by the sight of American flags as a racist, a sign of white supremacy, and way of identifying Americans who support Donald Trump (and thus the kind of people that are supposed to be avoided).
The View’s voice-over announcer set the tone with a tease warning of “[t]he backlash over claims that the stars and stripes have been politicized into a symbol of power and intimidation for white Americans.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg opened the debate by describing Gay’s experience on Long Island over Memorial Day weekend as having “put things into a scary perspective for her” and proof that the flag has come to mean something other than “freedom.”
Fellow lefty co-host Sunny Hostin was the worst, griping that she was “so surprised actually that she is receiving this kind of backlash” and said this should have been a case where those who disagreed with Gay folded and accepted her take as fact because Gay’s a Black woman.
Invoking Trump as having sullied the flag, Hostin also brought up the January 6 attack on the Capitol as having sullied the American flag by having supposedly come to define what happened that day.
She also relayed a vacation to North Carolina’s Outer Banks that turned out to be a traumatic experience in which she saw “people in pick-up trucks with Confederate flags flying alongside the U.S. flag and that scared me” as if she were being told “[y]ou don’t belong here.”
After suggesting that seeing American flags outside the Fourth of July was a way to identify Trump supporters, she said the presence of that flag (as well as Trump and Confederate ones as well) sends a threatening “message of white supremacy” and “racism.”
Co-host Joy Behar also defended Gay, but she would add towards the end of saying her peace that she’ll “be displaying the American flag in my house on July 4th because I am also a very patriotic person and I believe in the Constitution.”
Before that, however, she invoked a claim from the late George Carlin that “when fascism comes to America, it’ll be wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible. And let’s not forget that Trump….wrapped himself in it.”
Calling out “Trump Americans” as if to label them grotesque, Behar says she “resent[s]” the idea a group of people would hold the flag and “follow a guy who mocks servicemen, who colludes with foreign governments to — to influence our elections, who abuses and disrespects the Constitution.”
After a break, co-host Meghan McCain brought the usual balance as she defended the American flag (click “expand”)
GOLDBERG: So, Meghan, what do you think about this conversation? Is it one you’ve heard over and over?
MCCAIN: Well, I think you and Joy are right that the American flag has been used for political reasons. I know in the ’60s it was burned to protest the Vietnam War. I was actually really happy to hear you, Joy, say that you’re still going to proudly display your flag on the Fourth of July because, you know, the flag can mean different things to different people and you can love something — in the same way that I love my husband, I love my friends and it doesn’t mean I don’t see their flaws. I always think about America that’s the greatest country in the world and if you can find a country that’s better, show me. I have traveled the entire world. I can’t find any place I love more than being here. I will say there are some people — she was on Long Island on Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day is to memorialize and honor those who have fallen. The flag isn’t just simply used in insurrectionists [sic]. It was used to cover my dad’s casket. It’s used to cover the caskets of fallen soldiers who come back from war. It’s used to be put on the graves at Arlington to honor those who have given the greatest sacrifice. And in the same way I’m open to hear what the flag means to other people, I hope they’re equally — and this writer can hear what the flag means to my experiences and my home is covered in them. Our case has it on them. I named my daughter Liberty. I think I’m very clear on this issue. I love this country. I’m very patriotic and I love waving the American flag and there’s no argument that’s going to change my — my — the right to do that.
GOLDBERG: Excellent.
Sara Haines echoed Behar’s train of thought, saying she “actually do see the point [Gay] was making” in that “the flag has been somewhat co-opted, mainly during this — this former Trump era, kind of like the masks” with it having become a way of “spotting people in the crowd.”
Haines also lamented that people who aren’t progressive like her are seen as anti-flag or anti-American when they say something like Gay did (click “expand”):
But when I think of the flag, I — I think of growing up and seeing all the military displays of it. As — as Meghan mentioned, when they put it over a casket, that reverence and honor you feel for the ultimate sacrifice. The fact that we lower it in — due to key leaders and important people that have left their mark here in this country. And I — I love — I love it. I love it on Fourth of July and I refuse to let people take that away, that power away because anyone who has a family knows we’re the most critical of the things we love the most. So, I often think that, when people on the left or Democrats are critical of it, some people misinterpret that to mean that we must not be patriotic. And I believe this flag could come back to what it always has been, flying high. But I also think of the Olympics and how proud you feel when someone wins and you hear the national anthem. And so, I do — I do understand what she was saying cause I think it has become politicized. But I also believe that we can yank that back as fast as it was taken away and let it fly high as a work in progress, all the work — how far we’ve come, how far we’ve got to go and that we’re all here and I agree it’s the best place on Earth. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.
As time began to run out, Hostin interjected to both falsely claim she had “a legal note” in the form of The Times’s statement that defended Gay’s comments and tout a James Baldwin quote to suggest her constant and harsh criticism of America was because she loves this country.
Goldberg concluded by saying “everyone has the right to their opinion” with her own being “I feel the flag is strong enough to take me kneeling” and that no one race or ethnicity has an exclusive hold on the flag.
This trashing of America was made possible thanks to the endorsement of advertisers such as CarShield, General Mills, Humana, and L’Oreal. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant View transcript from June 9, click here.
Cheering for an Anti-American is just another example that there is no cure for Stupid!
The United States flag represents the country of the United States of America. If Ms gay feels offended she is more than welcome to move out of this country and live elsewhere that is her freedom and that is her right.
Bullet time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The left has been abandoning the flag since the 1960s. Their flag is the “rainbow” with no black, white, or brown. Their national anthem is “Taps.”
Maybe these morons should move to another country. Leave America to real Americans that love this country.
America is a white Christian country. the American flag is the most beautiful flag in the whole world. millions of people have died for the FREEDOM that the LEFTISTS on the view spit on. go POUND SAND. move anywhere else in the world and see what HAPPENS when you open your big MOUTHS.if you don’t like white people move to China or some country without white people. there are lots of them. HELL HOLES of TYRANNY and poverty.GOD BLESS AMERICA AND GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP.
Whoopi goldberg is a racist idiot ,if they all like her hate this country then leave she made enough money off this country she hates take her an all others like her an get out
Couldn’t agree more it’s time to rise up stop watching these racist idiots like Whoopi Goldberg and the rest of them
So the stars and stripes are racist. I guess the left wants us to adopt the nazi swastika as our country’s symbol. They must see that as less racist.
There are so many morons in this country, especially MSM and the democratic party. When will they ever learn. They certainly haven’t learned world history because they are ignoring it.
As the saying goes, ” Those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it. “
To all you commie. bastar**
If the great flag of our country offends you can leave and I’ll help pack your damned bags. Get the hell out of here and move to some country like Russia, Libia, or some other hole in the wall country and attempt to say and do the the things that you all do here. I fought for this flag, and will defend it to my last breath. What can you say you have done for yourself or family that can equal that??
DROP DEAD!!!
I did the same thing!!! Came back from ‘Nam messed up for about 4 years, doing better today!! Was spit on and called names, because I helped, just like you did, to KEEP OUR COUNTRY FREE!!! LOVE IT< OR LEAVE IT!!!! I WILL HELP THEM PACK!!!!
The left claims this country is racist and formed on racist principles only to push their sick agenda. The early racists in this country were the slave owners who also happened to be democrats. They are using projection to make the idiots think that this is a racist country. It’s not. This is all about divide and conquer and is sick. Our flag is a symbol of this country which has been mostly non racist for a while. Then came the clown Barack Obama. He has been dividing this country since he took office as president. He and the rest of the democrat party are following their bibles “The Communist Manifesto” and “Rules for Radicals”. If they win this country is done.
The American Flag stands for freedom and the USA and a lot of people died to defend it, I will defend the flag until death and those that don’t like the American Flag or America can KISS MY COUNTRY ASS.
Why is ‘The View’ still on the air? Are any of these Progressive hags relevant?
Because their progressive network has to fill the otherwise dead air with more of their insanity.
I rarely watch opinion shows like the View or Rachel Maddow as I don’t give a flip about the opinion of anyone I don’t respect.
Every Day, in Every Way, LIBERALS, Prove They are
I N S A N E !!!
Shows how unamerican – and unappreciative these privileged liberal idiots are. Only in America could they attain such wealth and fame, but like Colon (sic) Kappernick, are they thankful? Hell no!
Perhaps it is time to fly the American flag on every pickup truck we can find, locate her home, and drive continuously around in the front of her place until she surrenders to common sense. It really did not frighten her, she just said those things to make herself look stupid. Stupid is as stupid does fits this case of “oh my gosh my hair is on fire”.
America is a White Christian country, and anyone who does not like this, leave, go find a country whose flag you like, but leave mine alone!
Anti-American scoundrels, scoundrels, export them all! ❤ 🇺🇸 ❤🗽
SCREW those on the View and this ignorant bitch who was offended my my flag, that of the greatest country in the world. If ANYONE doesn’t like it here THEN GET THE HELL OUT..The moron democrats are destroying my country and have got to, be EXTERMINATED.
Is there no way we can get rid of these freedom hatting idots . Like sending them to Chins for an extended vacation.
It is a an absolute fact, that one out of every three liberals
is as stupid as the other two…
America is a white Christian country. the American flag is the most beautiful flag in the whole world. millions of people have died for the FREEDOM that the LEFTISTS on the view spit on. go POUND SAND. move anywhere else in the world and see what HAPPENS when you open your big MOUTHS.if you don’t like white people move to China or some country without white people. there are lots of them. HELL HOLES of TYRANNY and poverty.GOD BLESS AMERICA AND GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP.
read the man without a country.he got mixed up with the TRAITOR BENEDICT ARNOLD. he was never allowed to set foot on American soil ever again. he died without a country.
But these same people would cheer the “Hammer and Sickle” without even knowing it’s history 💥🐀☠
It never fails, though that as badly as they hate this country, and as horribly as they are oppressed, not one of them ever tries to escape from this country.