“The View” reacted to Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke derailing Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s press conference.
The hosts criticized Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin calling O’Rourke a “sick son of a bitch” as he confronted the governor and officials onstage about the Robbs Elementary School shooting.
“Is this public confrontation the only way to get some politicians to wake up and maybe talk about gun safety or will people just write this off as political theater and it’s just another day?” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said.
Co-host Sara Haines said O’Rourke “calmly” confronted Abbott on taking action after the deaths of 19 children and 2 fourth grade teachers in the elementary school.
“I would never show my face if I were Gov. Abbott after what happened,” Haines said. “Many people can’t even peel themselves off the floor in grief in those communities and yet he’s sitting there holding some sort of press conference. Our guest yesterday said it best, ‘faith without works is dead.’ So to hold a whole press conference about prayer and mourning the children, I’m guessing that grief is really quickly going to turn to anger if it hasn’t already and they’re gonna want to see some action. And to me, Beto O’Rourke, whether it’s performative or not, marched in there and calmly said, ‘enough is enough.'”
Co-host Sunny Hostin accused Abbott and the officials of being angrier with O’Rourke than the deaths of the children. (RELATED: ‘I’m Gonna Go Punch Somebody’: ‘The View’ Points Fingers At Republicans Following Texas School Shooting)
“They seemed angrier with Beto O’Rourke than they were at the massacre of 19 children and two fourth grade teachers. They were yelling at him. I’d like to see some of that energy around gun safety. I was so shocked that they were so angry at what he was saying and he was saying the right things. It was totally predictable, I mean Gov. Abbott was the person that changed the age of owning a gun from 21 to 18. This was completely predictable, it’s cyclical, our country’s the only country that has this problem.”
“They’re trying to blame it on mental illness. Let’s remember that people that have mental illness are 10 times more likely to be the victims of crime, not the perpetrators of crime. I am so sick of this freaking narrative about mental illness,” she continued.
The hosts agreed that the press conference was “political theater,” pointing to Abbott’s scheduled speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Leadership Forum on Saturday and stating that the massacre “could have been worse.”
Guest co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said Republicans are unwilling to take action on gun violence despite the increased number of mass shootings that have taken place since 1999.
“There are common sense gun safety reforms that could take place if people of good faith on the Republican side of the aisle were willing to act,” Griffin said. “Red flag laws, increased background checks. Mental health does matter…So Republicans, we need to invest in mental illness prevention if we’re going to deal with this.”
Haines said the data on these shootings need to be collected and focused on in order to prevent these shootings, such as young males being the most common individuals to cause these shootings.
Co-host Joy Behar said Republicans will not act on this issue because “they’re afraid of losing their power” due to their voter base. Griffin added that 70% of Republican voters support background checks.
“The only way to really fix this is to not vote for Republicans because in the general election, those Republicans are always going to be at the mercy of their constituents,” she claimed.
Goldberg said people knew what the alleged gunman, Salvador Ramos, was going to do and therefore people needed to recognize the signs and act.