Joy Behar told her co-hosts Thursday on ABC’s “The View” that former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party were “inciting” hate crimes while discussing Montana Republicans barring transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from the House floor for the rest of the 2023 session.
Co-host Sara Haines said, “Our First Amendment rights protect our right to speak, but also protest. They said she was inciting an insurrection. There was no violence, nothing happening. This country was built on protests. That’s why it’s protected by the First Amendment. The Boston Tea Party, the Civil Rights Movement to women’s right to vote, that’s what this country is. We need to be having more conversations. We talk about not even being able to finish Thanksgiving dinner because we’re not talking. Conversation is the last step before violence. Now to shut down the one voice you have in this House, who is transgender is problematic, because I believe everyone should be able to talk, regardless of identity, about every topic. It is mandatory to have the lived experience represented at those tables.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin said, “They don’t want to hear it, like in Tennessee.”
Behar said, “You said it very well. There are right out there with their homophobia, their transphobia, there antisemitism, their racism. It is not undercover anymore. I want to point out ever since he came down that escalator, since that day in June, hate crimes have increased more than 80%. 2021 had the highest number of hate crimes on record since the FBI began publishing data. He’s inciting, his party is inciting. We have to be vigilant about it. I don’t know what else to say about it. It’s horrible.”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said, “I feel some on the right are acting like the trans movement is a new phenomena. I remember 20 years ago, Barbara Walters covering it on ABC news.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN