Conspiracy theorist Rosie O'Donnell on Tuesday repeated her 9/11 truther beliefs [1] and blamed the United States for the creation of the terrorist group ISIS. While discussing foreign policy and the 2016 election, The View co-host blurted, "But don't you think the reason ISIS was created was because when Saudi hijackers attacked us, we invaded a different country that had nothing to do with it?" She added, "That would incite people to radicalize, right?"
Careful viewers will note that when O'Donnell said the word "Saudi hijackers," she made quote marks with her fingers. The comedienne, hired by the ABC network, has long hinted about how George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani might have been involved with the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks.
When asked by NewsBusters about it on August 8, 2014 [2], she reiterated: "I still do not believe the official story."
ABC should be challenged about giving a prominent platform to such nonsensical conspiracy theories.
On Tuesday, token Republican co-host Nicolle Wallace briefly rebuffed O'Donnell's arguments:
WALLACE: The one thing about ISIS is no American president of any party does anything to make terrorists hate us. Because what they hate about us is our values, our way of life. They hate our freedom.
O'Donnell later explained how it's wrong to drop bombs on ISIS, an organization responsible for beheading multiple Americans:
ROSIE O'DONNELL: Here's my point as a mom: I think you can never do anything to kill an innocent child. That's what I think, a child that's alive. Adults do horrible things to each other, but once you drop a bomb and kill a baby, I'm sorry. It's over for me. I know what those people did in those planes were horrific. But I don't think by killing each other we're going to solve the world's problems.
[Thanks to the MRC's Jeff Meyer for the video.]
A transcript of the October 7 exchange can be found below:
11:08
NICOLLE WALLACE [Talking about Hillary Clinton and 2016]: Obama has a 30 percent– 37 percent approval rating on foreign policy. So she's going to have to be different.
ROSIE O'DONNELL: But don't you think the reason ISIS was created was because when Saudi hijackers [makes quote marks] attacked us, we invaded a different country that had nothing to do with it? That would incite people to radicalize, right? Why is it that taking the troops out that caused it?
WALLACE: Well, the one thing about ISIS is no American president of any party does anything to make terrorists hate us. Because what they hate about us is our values, our way of life. They hate our freedom.
O'DONNELL: I don't believe that. I have heard that on Fox News a lot. But I don't believe that. I think that the reason that --
WALLACE: You think we do things to make them mad?
O'DONNELL: I think we have to be responsible for our actions. And if Saudi hijackers did what they do on 9/11 you don't invade Iraq and kill innocent people in the process.
WALLACE: What do you think we should have done instead?
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Let me put you on hold for a seconds. . We'll come back and finish this conversation because I know it's meaningful.
...11:14
O'DONNELL: Here's my point as a mom: I think you can never do anything to kill an innocent child. That's what I think, a child that's alive. Adults do horrible things to each other, but once you drop a bomb and kill a baby, I'm sorry. It's over for me. I know what those people did in those planes were horrific. But I don't think by killing each other we're going to solve the world's problems.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Here's the question that I have, because I think it's not even about going after folks. As soon as you destabilize a section of the world, other elements come in and that's what we did. We destabilized. As much as people hated Saddam, taking him out maybe wasn't the best thing to do. And it's a discussion.
WALLACE: It's a discussion. The last thing I'd say is we're going to have this conversation many morning because there are going to be flash points more times that we would want there to be. Egypt is another example. Different circumstances but it was destabilized and there are more people live knowledge poverty. The economy is in shambles. Change the brutal on the people that live there.
[Conversation ends.]
— Scott Whitlock is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Scott Whitlock on Twitter. [3]