Joy Behar Spars With Sara Haines: 'Trump Was Crazy and You Know It!'

Has Joy Behar found her new sparring partner? Wednesday morning on The View, the longtime co-host sparred with Sara Haines over a new book that claims Gen. Mark Milley took action to limit former President Trump's ability to launch nuclear weapons in the final days of his administration. After Haines both-sides the issue, saying that the people who think "Biden is dealing with some senility" will be able to limit his military power in the same way that Milley did, Behar shut her down. "I can believe my eyes. I see what's going on!" she said. "Biden doesn't have senility; Trump was crazy, and you know it!"

Wednesday's heated Hot Topics segment began with a discussion about Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's new book, "Peril," which claims that Milley called his Chinese counterpart in an attempt to avoid conflict both before the election and after the January 6 insurrection. Sunny Hostin made her feelings clear when she said that by "going outside the chain of command," Gen. Milley was "committing treason," as Trump alleged in his response to the "Peril" allegation. "I know that it was done to protect us from war, so that wars would not be started. And I think that the twice-impeached, former disgraced president was perfectly capable of starting a nuclear war, especially after his loss," she said. "But I think there's just no excuse for a silent coup, which I think that's what that is."

Behar disagreed, and she praised Milley for being the "adult who controls this lunatic." Added the co-host, "I blame all the people in his cabinet who did not invoke the 25th Amendment. Obviously he was nuts ... I know that the chain of command is sacrosanct. I understand that. But this was an emergency! We had a certifiable nutcase in the White House!"

Haines then chimed in to say that while she's okay with Milley allegedly telling his underlings to come to him for approval if they're instructed to launch any missiles, she finds the call to China concerning. "There's a certain amount we've seen that [China] is going to infiltrate, regardless," she said. "We don't need to be going to people that are our adversaries—"

BOOK CLAIMS GENERAL FEARED TRUMP WOULD STRIKE CHINA: Excerpts from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s upcoming book claim that Gen. Milley made secret calls to a Chinese general assuring him former Pres. Trump wouldn’t launch an attack – the co-hosts react. https://t.co/vB7QkDu4QD pic.twitter.com/25Y2OJfOpM

— The View (@TheView) September 15, 2021

With that, Behar interrupted to ask what Milley was supposed to say when the Chinese government is asking, "What's going on in America?" Haines replied that the general should have just brushed off the question, adding, "He also said, this is the worst, he pledged to alert him in the event of an attack. You can't tell China, 'We're coming for you!' We're united in that thing, and even if Trump's in charge, you go within. You go within our country."

The two continued to go back and forth about Trump's cabinet ("How can you trust these people?" asked Behar) and the implications of breaking the chain of command, with Behar's voice rising each time. Finally, Goldberg stepped in and put the situation into a larger context. "This is a good time for America to take a look at some of the chain of command and see if we need a little bit of failsafe in there, in the event this comes up again," she said. "If there's a little bit of checks and balances in there so that it doesn't have to go this way and that way — and I'll say, I don't think [Trump] is the right person to be talking about invoking treason. I don't think it's the right time for that man."

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.