View Hosts Spar Over Melania’s Nude Photos Defense In Heated Exchange: ‘Hypocrisy’ and ‘Slut-Shaming’

The co-hosts of ABC’s The View had a lot to say Friday about former First Lady Melania Trump’s recent comments on her history of nude photos, and the conversation got a little heated.

Co-host Joy Behar set the tone after playing the video Melania Trump released this week defending her decision to pose for nude photos while she was a model, calling former President Donald Trump’s wife “the little birther.” In the video, she explained: “Throughout history, master artists have revered the human shape, evoking profound emotions and admiration. We should honor our bodies and embrace the timeless tradition of using art as a powerful means of self-expression.”

She also asked: “Are we no longer able to appreciate the beauty of the human body?” To which Behar also responded: “[W]e all appreciate the female body, Melania. Listen, your husband appreciated Stormy Daniels’s body plenty.”

Co-host Sara Haines was seemingly rubbed the wrong way about the message Mrs. Trump was sending:

It’s more the hypocrisy of it. And what bothers me about it is the Republican Party has long, kind of, ridden the family values, the purest people, the judgment on everyone else’s lives, from banning books to shutting down drag performances. So, to then all of a sudden flip the script and say, “Now we appreciate this thing.” It just, it felt like it was — it doesn’t track.

That’s where the conversation took off:

Alyssa Farah Griffin: I actually agreed with everything she said. I think that in art, photography, pictures, portraits, if you want to pose nude or you want to express that, that’s a perfectly fine thing. What I was surprised by is, I don’t know any serious person who’s been criticizing her for this in a decade, since she first ran for office. But I would say this — if they are on the left, I don’t think you defeat misogyny, sexism, slut-shaming by engaging in it. I think that you should — if that’s what you stand for, you shouldn’t do it to Melania Trump any more than you know.

Behar: Didn’t they go after Michelle Obama’s arms? Come on!

Sunny Hostin: I was going to say that one of the problems with this whole thing is that when she was the First Lady, you could only refer to her as a former model. You could not mention the photos. If you mentioned the photos, you were canceled. And by the way, these aren’t just photos. These are erotic, nude photos. This is the same thing that took down Vanessa Williams, okay?

Griffin: But I agree on hypocrisy—

Hostin: And that is not acceptable.

Griffin: I agree on the hypocrisy, but do you defeat ills in society by engaging in the same ills?

Ana Navarro: I think you need to confront them with hypocrisy.

Griffin: So, you defeat hypocrisy with more hypocrisy?

Navarro: No, I think you confront hypocrisy and you call it out when you see it. I also think that to me it was really funny–

Griffin: But that confronts the hypocrisy not the act that you’re trying to change — misogyny, sexism–

Navarro: I want to call it out every single time I see it. When I see somebody that calls themselves the party of God and the party of religiousness supporting Donald Trump, I’m going to call out the hypocrisy.

Griffin: Do you have a problem with slut-shaming though?

Navarro: Well, I have a problem when when Republicans do it plenty, right? They try to do it with Kamala Harris.

Griffin: Right, but I’m asking if you have a problem with it.

Navarro: With slut-shaming? Not a bit. I have a problem with hypocrisy. I have a problem with liars.

Watch the video above via ABC.