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The View
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To Joy Behar, a little scandal is all relative. The View cohost is ready to forgive and forget Will Smith‘s infamous Oscars slap, telling her talk show co-hosts that his misdeed is nothing compared to the crimes committed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin … which, true!
After Smith appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah yesterday (Nov. 28) and admitted he “lost it” during the “horrific” ceremony in which he struck Chris Rock across the face, The View debated his future during Hot Topics. All of the co-hosts agreed Smith should not be permanently blacklisted from Hollywood, especially considering the release of his upcoming slavery drama, Emancipation.
Behar pointed to Smith’s actions since the slap, recalling his July apology video to Rock, as well as his resignation from the Academy (which has banned him from all events for the next 10 years).
“It’s not like he did something so horrible like have Thanksgiving with Trump,” she quipped, rolling her eyes. Later in the segment, Behar posed the question of “separating the art from the artist,” recalling a similar chat she’d had with her grandson recently.
“[He] has those Yeezys,” she began, referring to shoes designed by Kanye West. “I said to him, ‘Kanye has said some antisemitic things,’ and he said, ‘Well, I don’t like that. But I like the Yeezys.'”
As the panel vaguely discussed historical figures with “dirty sides” that continue to influence society today, Behar drew the line, explaining, “It’s a relative situation, because you have somebody like this monster Vladimir Putin. Let’s talk about ‘whataboutism’ — it’s like, what [Smith] did, it was a nasty thing he did, but it’s not unforgivable. What Vladimir Putin is doing is unforgivable.”
Sara Haines, pointing out the obvious, chimed in, “it’s a totally different league, yes,” while Behar replied, “Let’s keep the perspective a little bit.”
Whoopi Goldberg closed out the segment the only way one can end a Smith and Putin comparison, simply telling the audience, “And there you have it.”
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC. Watch the full Smith segment in the video above.
