In addition to 9/11 truther Rosie O'Donnell [1], two other hosts debuted on The View, Monday, moderate Republican Nicolle Wallace and liberal actress Rosie Perez [2]. Wallace famously worked for – and then publicly trashed – Sarah Palin. Perez quizzed, "One, what was it like when you first met her? Two, did the winking get on your nerves? And three, when did you want to just pop her?" [MP3 audio here [3].]
The former aide to John McCain was all too happy to begin her View tenure attacking other Republicans. Wallace joked, "When I first met her I just had an emergency...root canal. I was on Vicodin and I'm like, it must be the drugs."
Speaking of the infamous Katie Couric interview, Wallace spun: "But our relationship really erupted and exploded and it was irreparably damaged after the Katie Couric interview when [Palin] thought I set her up for failure and I felt like, you know, the questions were pretty fair."
[For a Media Research Center refresher on the September 30th, 2008 Couric/Palin interview, go here [4]. The then-CBS Evening News anchor pounded the vice presidential nominee on Pakistan and other issues. Yet, she fawned over Joe Biden [5].]
Wallace also took a shot at Dick Cheney, recounting her experience after the Vice President shot a man in a hunting accident. O'Donnell then recounted:
ROSIE O'DONNELL: When I met Nicolle and knew about what she had done in her life and career, very impressive. I had one question, I said, "Was it your idea to have George Bush do a fly-by over Katrina?" And tell everyone what you said?
WALLACE: Well, I was getting married.
A partial transcript of the segment is below:
11:45
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Let me ask you about, you know --
NICOLLE WALLACE: Yeah. You can say it without laughing.
GOLDBERG: Sarah Palin. How's that?
ROSIE PEREZ: Can I have three specific questions?
WALLACE: Yes.
PEREZ: Okay. One, what was it like when you first met her? Two, did the winking get on your nerves? And three, when did you want to just pop her?
GOLDBERG: That's right. That's right.
WALLACE: Okay. When I first met her I just had an emergency, what's it called, root canal. I was on Vicodin and I'm like, it must be the drugs. But I have no idea who this is. So I went out -- "Who is this one? Who did we go with?" So, she was pretty cool the first time I met her. But our relationship really erupted and exploded and it was irreparably damaged after the Katie Couric interview when she thought I set her up for failure and I felt like, you know, the questions were pretty fair. She asked her what she read. You know, so, that was the end of the end.
ROSIE O'DONNELL: When I met Nicolle and knew about what she had done in her life and career, very impressive. I had one question, I said, "Was it your idea to have George Bush do a fly-by over Katrina?" And tell everyone what you said?
WALLACE: Well, I was getting married.
O'DONNELL: It wasn't her! She was in Greece getting married! It was not her! Way to go, Nicolle.
— Scott Whitlock is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Scott Whitlock on Twitter. [6]