Looks like ABC is in a bit of hot water over defamatory statements made by Joy Bahar and Whoopi Goldberg on ‘The View’ with regard to Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
ABC News received a cease and desist letter from TPUSA on Tuesday, demanding that it “retract the defamatory statements” made earlier this week on ‘The View’ or risk legal action.
“The false statements of fact intentionally made during The View’s July 25th segment were unquestionably harmful to TPUSA’s reputation and brought the organization and its student affiliates into disrepute with the public, potential donors, and current and future business partners, posing a significant financial loss to the organization,” the letter said.
The letter claimed that “TPUSA’s reputation was unquestionably damaged and that the false statements of fact made during The View’s segment on July 25th brought the organization and its student affiliates into disrepute with the public, potential donors, and current and future business partners, posing a significant financial loss to the organization.”
The letter accusing ‘The View’ of making “false, derogatory, and defamatory statements” about its recent Student Action Summit was obtained by Fox News Digital and was addressed to Joshua Hoyos, the head of ABC News’ bureau in New York, and Ian Rosenberg, the assistant chief counsel for ABC.
On Monday, the daytime gabfest kicked off its program by discussing the TPUSA Student Action Summit that occurred last weekend in Tampa, Florida. “The View” co-hosts mocked the elaborate event for taking “a page from the WWE” simply because of special effects, inaccurately portrayed the group as being officially tied to the GOP, and Joy Behar criticized the group because neo-Nazi protestors were outside the venue.
“Neo-Nazis were out there in the front of the conference with antisemitic slurs and, you know, the Nazi swastika and a picture of a so-called Jewish person with exaggerated features, just like Goebbels did during the Third Reich. It’s the same thing, right out of that same playbook,” Behar said.
She then said that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “did nothing,” but failed to mention the Republican governor attended the event the day before neo-Nazis appeared.
WATCH:
Later on the program, “The View” read an on-air legal disclaimer to inform viewers that Turning Point USA condemned the neo-Nazi protestors who had “nothing to do” with the organization.
“But you let them in, and you knew what they were,” Whoopi Goldberg falsely claimed before the panelists were forced to read another disclaimer and explain the neo-Nazis were “outside protestors” and TPUSA didn’t let them in. “My point was metaphorical,” Goldberg said.
According to the NY Post, the on-air disclaimers didn’t satisfy TPUSA in-house counsel Veronica Peterson, who penned the scathing cease-and-desist.
“The View hosts intentionally and falsely associated TPUSA with neo-Nazi protestors outside the event placing TPUSA in denigrating and false light and negatively impacting its public perception. Such action will not be tolerated,” the letter said.
“Specifically, The View hosts insidiously and cavalierly stated that TPUSA ‘let [neo-Nazis] in’ to its SAS event, metaphorically ‘embrase[d] them’ [sic] and that neo-Nazis were ‘in the mix of people.’ The assertion that TPUSA is complicit or affiliated in any way with the neo-Nazi protesters outside the event is outlandish, false, defamatory, and disgraceful,” the letter continued. “Even after Ms. Haines reluctantly read the TPUSA statement that it condemns the group of neo-Nazis and that the group had nothing to do with TPUSA, its event, or its student attendees, Ms. Goldberg continues the false tirade against TPUSA, asserting that somehow the organization and its attendees were ‘complicit’ and/or associated with the outside protest.”
Peterson then added, “To be abundantly clear, TPUSA aggressively and completely condemns the ideologies of neo-Nazism and has zero connection to the protestors outside the event. Since these individuals were located on public property, TPUSA security attempted to, but was not permitted to remove them.”
ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
