Comedian Roșie O’Donnell has dusted off her infamous argument with Republican Elizabeth Hasselbeck to explain what was happening behind the scenes.
While on the Australian radio show Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel, the 63-year-old progressive former talk show host claimed that her blowout fight with Hasselbeck on The View in 2007 was orchestrated by late producer Bill Geddie.
“Our producer is not an on-the-fly kind of guy, he wasn’t mister like, ‘Let’s go to the split-screen.’ That was prepared,” O’Donnell alleged. “So, the whole thing, I think, was a setup.”
@rickileetimjoel “It was a set up”. 👀 #RosieODonnell #ElisabethHasselbeck #TheView #RTJ
O’Donnell was referencing an explosive fight that took place on May 23, 2007, while the co-hosts were locked in a heated debate about the United States’ involvement in the Iraq war.
The View leaned into the argument, showing a split screen of O’Donnell and Hasselbeck while O’Donnell called out Hasselbeck for not having her back when the media accused A League of Their Own actress of calling America’s troops “terrorists," and Hasselbeck fought back.
“You are an adult and I am certainly not going to be the person for you to explain your thoughts; they’re your thoughts,” Hasselbeck shot back.
During her recent radio appearance, O’Donnell not only claimed she was “set up,” but admitted to being surprised things went sideways, considering that she went out of her way to befriend Hasselbeck despite their differing political views.
“I can not believe that this woman, after all I did for her, because when I took that job, I made one commitment to myself, that I was not going to be her enemy, that I was going to meet her as a person,” O’Donnell said.
“She came to my house, she swam in my pool, she brought her little kid, I took her kid to Sesame Street Live, I took her to her first Broadway opening,” she explained.
This intense argument was not the first or last time the co-hosts clashed on-screen, and O’Donnell described it as if Hasselbeck was sabotaging her, despite their apparent friendship off camera.
“Like I bent over backwards for this woman and here she was coming at me on national TV about whether or not I was patriotic,” O’Donnell said. “It felt to me like I was on a basketball team of five women and one of them kept tripping me on my way to the hoop.”
