"The View" co-host Joy Behar defended her use of blackface at a Halloween party many years ago during a testy interview with Republican congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik on Friday.
Klacik, who is running in Maryland's 7th District, had been asked about President Trump talking to reporter Bob Woodward on the seriousness of COVID-19 while he was trying to downplay it when he spoke on the issue publicly during the very early days of the global pandemic.
"We didn’t handle the pandemic as a country great as a whole," Klacik said, adding, "If you look at cities like Baltimore, you have things called a food deserts...And so, yeah, I believe a coronavirus pandemic would affect us more. I mean, look at my campaign ad. Look at the living conditions. That would affect us more, absolutely. That’s why I’m running for office.”
"Come on, Kim. Excuse me, I have to say something to you. He told Bob Woodward that it was a very serious issue, and it’s airborne and that it was terrible, and then he went out and told the American people, ‘Don’t wear masks. It’s all going to go away.’ You have to put some blame on your president. I’m sorry. You’re putting it on something extraneous here. Talk to the point, please," Behar said in response.
"Is this Joy speaking? The same Joy that paraded around in blackface not too long ago? Come on, Joy, I don’t think you should be asking questions..." Klacik replied.
"That’s not true. Excuse me — excuse me! The black community had my back. They know that that was not blackface. That was an homage. Oh, please," Behar interjected.
When Klacik said the black community has her back as well and continued to interrupt her, "The View" hosts decided to end the interview.
"The ladies of @TheView didn’t like what I had to say, so naturally they cut me off. Why are they silencing Black Women? Hey, @JoyVBehar — I think your White Privilege is showing through your blackface!" Klacik tweeted after she appeared on the show.