"The View" co-host Sara Haines pointed to what she believes is Donald Trump's campaign strategy on Wednesday and lamented news networks' focus on him, saying "we're all talking about him."
The hosts discussed the former president appearing in a New York courtroom during civil lawsuit proceedings brought against him by the New York Attorney General Letitia James and the judge's decision to impose a gag-order preventing all parties from engaging in any verbal attacks against court staff.
"I think these trials are affecting how much Donald Trump can actually engage in campaigning. Yesterday he was being told he’s broke and dealing with the fraud cases. He was completely tapped out of the Kevin McCarthy drama. He didn’t come to the defense of my Kevin. He didn’t call Matt Gaetz or anything," co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said.
Haines disagreed as she interrupted and said that it was all part of the Republican presidential front-runner's campaign "strategy."
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"He did it in 2016. We’re all talking about him. They had cameras on the courthouse to see if he walks his little buns in there – big buns. Sorry," she said, prompting laughter from the audience.
"But point being, we’re not talking about potential options because we hear these polls all the time. No one else is going to get it, but we're not talking about them. We’re also doing it right now, but every news network is watching Donald Trump. He dominates the air waves and then he uses that as his campaign," Haines said.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg said Trump was breaking the law by threatening "elected officials."
"We're not putting up with this," Goldberg said. "The same way you went after Kathy Griffin, because you didn't like what she did, that's the same way people need to recognize we need to do the same and let you know that you're not allowed to do that anymore. You can't do that anymore."
Goldberg said people told Griffin, "You can't do this again," referencing Griffin's infamous photo of herself holding a bloodied, decapitated replica of Trump’s head.
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Critics continue to question the media's coverage of the former president, the current front-runner in the GOP's primary race, as major networks sit down with him for interviews or decide to host town halls.
Jonathan Chait, a columnist for New York Magazine, rebuked fellow journalist Matt Yglesias' argument in his "Slow Boring" substack on Wednesday, which suggested that journalists were helping Trump because it was good for the news organizations' ratings.
"I don’t think any mainstream-media owners consider the bump in audience share they’d get from a second Trump term remotely worth the existential risk of his goons subjecting them to economic retribution and legal harassment," Chait wrote.
Yglesias argued, "The Trump administration was a ratings bonanza. Trump sold newspaper subscriptions and he drove clicks."
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