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Joy Behar Says Trump Only Helped Johnson For Access To Kardashian’s Social Media Following

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Joy Behar claimed on Thursday that President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of non-violent drug offender Alice Marie Johnson at least in part because he saw something in it for himself.

She said on ABC’s “The View” that he likely made the move in order to gain popularity with the social media following of reality star Kim Kardashian West, who advocated for Johnson’s release.

Sara Haines said that Kardashian, who met with the president a week earlier to discuss prison reform and to plead Johnson’s case for clemency, deserved a lot of the credit for bringing it to fruition. She explained, “This is an instance where she used her platform and educated herself, and I say bravo.”

Bear took a much more cynical approach, saying that Trump’s interest in the matter was likely more political than personal. (RELATED: Alice Johnson Thanks Trump After First Night Of Freedom: ‘Going To Make You So Proud’)

“Kim also has 112 million followers on Instagram and 60 million on Twitter. So, you know, if he is thinking of running again, he’s got that nice little constituency over there, so that is not a coincidence. … He has motives.”

Meghan McCain turned the conversation back to Kardashian, noting that by meeting with the president she was able to advance the dialogue on her own terms — an opportunity she has accused sports figures of squandering when they refuse to attend White House events in protest. (RELATED: Meghan McCain Says Eagles Are Missing An Opportunity to ‘Bring Us Together’)

McCain applauded Kardashian for taking the meeting, saying, “I think it just shows the power and importance of showing up and taking a meeting as we have said and talked about on this show. There’s a lot of people who won’t even meet with Trump for all these reasons. Kim, I read she didn’t want to smile in the photo because she wanted to show she was taking it very seriously, and not necessarily supporting him. I think it just shows the power of showing up and having a conversation, which I wish we were doing more of, and she 100-percent deserves the majority of credit on it.”