Thursday 15 September 2011

Michael Moore, Elisabeth Hasselbeck spar over Bin Laden death on 'The View'

Joy Behar tried to rescue Moore, asking him to continue with what he was trying to say.
Moore insisted that bin Laden should have been put on trial. "The way we show the world that we're different is that we give even the most heinous person their day in court," he said. "If we lose sight of that basic American truth... We put the Nazis on trial, we put Manson on trial..." His comments received a thunderous ovation from the audience.
Hasselbeck replied snarkily, "Why, because Casey Anthony's trial went so well, we should put Osama bin Laden on the stand?"
"If we start to say that we are afraid to hold trials because terrorists might hurt us, we look like a bunch of wusses," Moore fired back. "We're Americans, if you come here and kill us, we will hunt you down and we will take you into court and we will put you on trial and if need be you will receive the maximum punishment for what you did. What is wrong with that?"
Hasselbeck's point was that we grant those rights to American citizens, but Osama bin Laden was never an American citizen, and therefore he does not deserve those rights. The audience at The View appeared to be equally split, with some of Moore's comments getting rambunctious applause, and some of Hasselbeck's getting the same response.
As with most arguments about politics, no agreement was reached, and the entire segment was filled with bickering and cross-talk, and it's hard to hear what anyone is saying.
Hasselbeck has taken on guests' political views before and she stood her ground against Moore as best she could. Whoopi Goldberg tried to take the edge off the encounter by saying she would love to have Moore on again because he was "so much fun."
For whom, exactly?
In his final comments, Moore said that "as a Catholic," he does not believe in taking life unless it's in self-defense -- so if the Navy SEALs who killed bin Laden feared for their lives, the murder was acceptable. Hasselbeck then fired a question at him in the last second of the segment, "Are you pro-life?" Moore replied, "Yes, I'm pro-life in that I don't think you should kill people."
During the appearance Moore and "View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck got in a heated argument over Osama bin Laden, and ultimately whether the terrorist leader behind the 9/11 attacks should have been brought to the U.S. for trial. Bin Laden was shot and killed in May during the raid on his compound in Pakistan by U.S. Navy Seals.


The interview began when Moore was asked about his controversial comments reported by a Hollywood website shortly after bin Laden's death. At that time Moore told Thewrap.com, "Common sense tells you he was executed. That was the plan all along. Just tell us that and quit treating us like children."
On "The View", Moore stuck to his guns and said he still believes bin Laden should have been captured and returned to the United States to stand trial. He compared it to the trials at Nuremberg after World War II.
"I think that we did a very smart thing putting the Nazis on trial," he said. "That was after the war was over," Hasselbeck interrupted.
"The war is over," Moore said. "Michael, we're still at war!" she snapped.
"No, we're not, actually," Moore retorted.
The two continued to spar over the issue with Moore adding, "My point is that the way we show the world that we're different is that we give even the most heinous person their day in court."
A furious Hasselbeck jumped in, "You're telling me Osama bin Laden deserves a trial? Where? In New York City? Absolutely not! How dare -- and why, because Casey Anthony's trial went so well?"
The two continued with the debate until finally co-host Whoopi Goldberg called an end to it by tossing to commercial break.
Take a look at the clip from "The View" yourself. What do you think? Share your comments below.

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