“The View” co-hosts raged at ex-MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, who called for Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor to step down.
Hasan called on Sotomayor to step down for “the sake of us all” in an op-ed written for The Guardian, citing her age and the chance that former President Donald Trump could appoint a “far-right” justice if he serves another term. He told CNN’s Jake Tapper Tuesday that Democrats are unable to view the power of the Supreme Court, and are thus ignoring the possibility of President Joe Biden appointing a centrist before his first term concludes.
“I’m annoyed that he’s not saying ‘hey, why do we still have Clarence Thomas on the court whose wife was implicit in trying to turn over the election,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said. “Listen, there are…I’ve always said this about the Supreme Court. Supremes [justices] get on the court and they evolve. Sometimes it takes some time, but you think of Frank Footer who evolved, all of these Supreme Court justices and they do evolve because their job is not to make the law, their job is to look at the law and figure out how it could be working better. This guy, to just go for Sonia Sotomayor, who we know her thoughts. We don’t always agree with them but we know her thoughts and she’s a thoughtful person…there are people who should be gone because they haven’t done what I think they should’ve done.”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin jumped to Hasan’s defense, arguing he called for Thomas to recuse himself from cases relating to the 2020 presidential election. She noted Hasan is “very progressive,” leading Goldberg to interject.
“I’m sure he is, but this is not, for me, I did not want to hear this,” Goldberg said. “I want you to talk about getting people who are not doing their job.” (RELATED: ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Get Visibly Frustrated With Farah Griffin As She Defends Hur Against Democrats)
Griffin argued several Democrats have ignored the possibility of Trump being re-elected and appointing another conservative justice. The former president appointed three justices to the court—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett—who are most known for overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Goldberg made an historically inaccurate claim that Democrats do not “stack the court.” Former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat, attempted to stack the court with as many as 15 justices in 1937 after the high court had struck down several key pieces of his New Deal legislation.
Co-host Sunny Hostin claimed Republicans stole two seats in the Supreme Court. She criticized Hasan’s call for Sotomayor to step down, pointing out the other justices’ ages.
“This take, I will say to my friend, I thought was the wrong take especially because, as you pointed out, Clarence Thomas is 75, Samuel Alito who wrote the Dobbs decision is 74. John Roberts, the chief justice, is the same age as Justice Sotomayor, he’s 69. Kagen is 63. So when you’re pointing all of those things out, how can you then say this woman, who by the way, Justice Sotomayor is battling diabetes like millions of other people in the world and is managing it well…but the bottom line is, she is such a stalwart on that court that we need her voice.”
Co-host Joy Behar, who is 81 years old, said Sotomayor is a “baby.”
Voters have expressed concerns with 81-year-old Joe Biden’s age, who has had several alarming moments during his first time, including when he searched the room for a deceased congresswoman and shook hands with the air in April 2022. Special Counsel Robert Hur described him as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” in his report surrounding the investigation into his mishandling of classified documents.