‘The View’ co-hosts blast Trump for selling ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles: ‘It’s pandering’
The co-hosts of ABC’s “The View” on Wednesday mocked former President Trump for selling Bibles, with one host calling the initiative “hypocrisy at its most religious.”
Trump announced Tuesday he is selling “God Bless USA” Bibles, in partnership with country musician Lee Greenwood ahead of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Wednesday’s segment of “The View” played a clip of Trump’s announcement in which the former president said, “We must make America pray again.”
The clip prompted some laughs from “The View” audience, while the hosts remained silent for a few moments and looked surprised.
Whoopi Goldberg kicked the conversation off asking her co-hosts, “OK, I don’t know … Anybody?”
“The last time he was on his knees, he was picking up a french fry,” Joy Behar quipped, prompting laughs from the audience.
Behar brought up testimony from Trump’s former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, who claimed the former president once told him pastors are “hustlers” and that Trump complained about pastors “who laid hands on him” during a 2011 meeting.
“This is hypocrisy at its most religious,” she added.
Sara Haines called the initiative “pandering,” and pointed to Trump’s newly debuted golden “Never Surrender” sneakers, which she argued was an attempt to secure Black voter support.
“Or do you guys remember the unforgettable tweet about the taco bowls where it was, ‘Happy Cinco De Mayo. The best taco bowls are made in Trump tower grill. I love hispanics,'” Haines said. “So there’s that.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump administration aide, dug into the Bible launch, pointing to her own Christianity.
“He’s selling these for $60, and I’m a Christian and as soon as I heard that price tag, I think of the persecuted church Christians around the world who risked their lives to have one page of the Bible, to be able to read scripture in places like China, Saudi Arabia, Syria — where you can’t practice your faith openly,” she said. “And he’s using it to profit off of … like that tells you all you need to know about the man.”
Sunny Hostin later interjected, “It’s blasphemous!”
In a Tuesday video, Trump said he thinks it’s important for every American to have a copy of the Bible in their home and said it is his “favorite book.”
“Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country. And I truly believe that we need to bring them back and have to bring them back fast,” he said. “I think it’s one of the biggest problems we have. That’s why our country is going haywire. We’ve lost religion in our country.”
The $60 King James Bible will feature lyrics from Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.,” along with the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Hill has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment.
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