“The View” co-host Joy Behar said Tuesday that former President Donald Trump “would’ve been in jail” if he had been in office in Peru or Germany, two countries that have recently faced governmental crises.
The co-hosts discussed Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Saturday statement that if she had organized the Capitol riot, the Jan. 6 rioters “would have won” and “[the riot] would’ve been armed.” The representative later said her remark was “sarcasm” in a statement Monday.
Co-host Sunny Hostin read a statistic that one in three Americans said it “could sometimes be justified” for Americans to take violent actions against the government. Hostin argued there are “never two sides” to discussions about the riot because, she said, it all stemmed from supporters and allies of former President Donald Trump.
“I was reading this weekend about other countries,” Behar replied. “In Peru, the President of Peru, this is so interesting to me. He tried to dissolve the government and seize power. They arrested him that day — that day. And in Germany this week, there was a group of people who tried to overthrow the government in Germany, they’ve all been arrested. One of them was from a noble family before the war, the big one, when he was in power and he was the nobility, and he was the aristocrat. Now he’s selling real estate, so he’s very annoyed, and he was one of those people trying to overthrow the government.”
“In those countries, which are democracies, Trump would’ve been in jail three years ago,” Behar continued.
Behar referenced Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, whom the government arrested and impeached in early December over his attempts to dissolve the Peruvian Congress and install an emergency government and a national curfew. He further pushed for the crafting of a new constitution. Following his impeachment, Peruvian police placed Castillo under arrest.
In Germany, police arrested 25 suspected members of a far-right group influenced by a conspiracy group called Citizens of the Reich (Reichsbürger),according to The New York Times. The members allegedly plotted to overthrow the German government, leading approximately 3,000 officers to conduct raids throughout the country Wednesday.
Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss, a member of the former royal family, was among those arrested, The New York Times reported. (RELATED: ‘The View’ Laments Capitol Police For Debunking J6 Committee Allegations About Rep. Loudermilk)
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg argued adults need to re-learn the meaning of American democracy and history. Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin pointed to a lack of civic education in the U.S. which leads currently serving members of Congress to have limited knowledge on the Constitution.
Goldberg further argued Greene should be “behind bars” for her remarks about Jan. 6, to which Behar said Peru and Germany were able to arrest those attempting to overthrow their respective governments because neither country has the First Amendment.
“We have the First Amendment in this country, Peru and Germany may not have the First and Second Amendment,” she said.
“The First Amendment does not say that you can pursue overtaking the government,” Goldberg said. “We had a whole discussion about that, that’s why the January 6 Committee got formed, because you’re not supposed to be able to do that! … The fact that folks are not being held accountable the same way that we as regular Americans would be held accountable, really irritates the hell out of me.”