Joy Behar reaffirmed her stance that she feels embarrassed to be an American during a recent episode of ABC’s ‘The View,’ asserting, “We all should be.”
The discussion began when Behar played a clip featuring comedian Larry David describing last week’s UFC White House event as “a travesty” and saying he was “embarrassed to be an American.”
Behar quickly voiced [1] agreement with David’s statement.
“If you listen to Trump, we used to have friends around the world, now we don’t have them anymore,” Behar said, expressing frustration over how she perceives America’s current global reputation.
Co-host Ana Navarro responded by noting how comments like David’s would be dangerous or even deadly in countries without free speech.
“There’s some people that are going to take issue with Larry David saying something like that, but there’s so many countries where if you said something like that about being embarrassed by that country, you would end up dead,” Navarro said.
She then listed examples, citing “places like Iran, places like Cuba, places like North Korea, places like Nicaragua, where I fled.”
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Navarro’s statement drew attention because of her past strong criticisms of President Donald Trump, including calling him a “fascist” less than a year ago.
Behar, however, maintained her perspective throughout the segment, repeating that she feels ashamed of how the country treats immigrants.
“I’m embarrassed for this country, the way he’s been treating immigrants,” she said, before repeating a talking point about family separations.
She then reflected on her own family history. “I mean, my family came over here, like, 100 years ago,” she said, launching into a discussion about Italian Americans.
Behar described how her family and other immigrants from southern Italy arrived in the United States seeking opportunity.
“The Italians came here, you know, Italian-Americans are some of the most patriotic people in the country, and one of the reasons is because they came from poverty in southern Italy, and came here, and they were like, ‘America, God bless America,’ you know?” she remarked, using an exaggerated accent for emphasis.
She contrasted that generational pride with what she views as mistreatment of immigrants today.
“And now, he treats immigrants the way he treats them,” Behar said, doubling down on her frustration.
Returning to Larry David’s comments, she concluded, “And of course Larry is embarrassed to be an American,” adding, “In that way, we should all be.”
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Her statements emphasized solidarity with David and criticism of the current leadership.
Not all of her co-hosts agreed.
Alyssa Farah Griffin voiced the opposite sentiment, sharing that she remains deeply patriotic.
“I am very, very proud to be an American,” Griffin said, explaining that she has recently been enjoying the 250th anniversary celebrations by watching the World Cup.
“I don’t know a thing about soccer or football, but watching, good-looking players, but people coming from all over the world and discover things about America is giving me absolute life,” Griffin added, offering a lighter take to balance the heated exchange.
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