“The View” co-host Ana Navarro sparred with the show’s panelists Friday as she defended Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s comments condemning the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Co-host Sunny Hostin initiated the exchange when she claimed that Republicans refused to denounce the Capitol riot and criticized some leaders for questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. Navarro responded by defending McConnell and his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, for turning their backs on former President Donald Trump and condemning the riot.
“Then they come out maybe a few days or weeks after Jan. 6 and they’re like, ‘Nothing to see here. [President Joe] Biden may not be the president.’ How disgusting and despicable is that?” Hostin asked.
“Not Mitch McConnell. Except for Mitch McConnell,” Navarro said. “There’s actually a huge difference between [Republican House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell. One has actually been sane and consistent, the other one has been a sniveling coward.”
Co-host Joy Behar responded by claiming that the “sane and consistent” McConnell is trying to destroy the country. Navarro said that Behar could object to McConnell’s policy positions while still admiring him for taking a firm stance against the Jan. 6 apologists and elections deniers in his party. (RELATED: ‘The Only Non-Loca Of The Party’: Sunny Hostin Spars With Ana Navarro Being Republican)
“You can take an issue with him on policy, but on this issue — you can take an issue with him on policy and the parliamentarian steps that he takes, and I think that’s very valid,” Navarro said, struggling to finish her point as her co-hosts attempted to talk over her. “But on this issue, I think Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao are—”
Navarro then became visibly frustrated as Hostin interrupted her defense of McConnell and Chao.
“Can I finish a sentence?” Navarro snapped. “I think that Mitch McConnell and Elain Chao have been truthful, and the few people that have been truthful in the Republican Party need to be acknowledged as such.”
McConnell has publicly defended the Jan. 6 Select Committee, pointing to the significance of its findings. His admiration committee comes after he helped kill a bipartisan 9/11-style commission in the Senate that would have investigated the Capitol riot.
“I think the fact-finding is interesting. We’re all going to be watching it. It was a horrendous event, and I think what they’re seeking to find out is something the public needs to know,” he said in an December interview with Spectrum News.
In the aftermath of the riot, McConnell condemned Trump and some of his allies for stating that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and said the former president’s rhetoric played a role in provoking the riot.