‘The View’s Sara Haines Goes Giggly Over Jeffrey Toobin As Cohosts Don’t See The Humor
UPDATE, with video Not since Chuckles the Clown’s funeral has a giggling fit seemed harder to contain: Sara Haines couldn’t get through today’s The View discussion about Jeffrey Toobin’s recent Zoom blunder without a real tears-down-the-cheeks guffaw, even as her cohosts looked on with mostly straight faces.
Toobin, of course, is the New Yorker writer and CNN legal analyst who was suspended from the magazine and took a leave of absence from the network yesterday after he was caught on a New Yorker staff Zoom call (discussing the election) participating in, reportedly, some socially distanced virtual sex on a separate video-call. Toobin says he didn’t know his staff call camera was still on.
The Toobin incident has drawn the expected jokes around the internet, but a more serious approach to the matter was initiated by View moderator Whoopi Goldberg and cohost, lawyer and former Toobin colleague Sunny Hostin. “Why would someone show this lack of impulse control,” Hostin wondered. “Is this addictive behavior?…Is this an addiction related to these unprecedented times? I think that merits some investigation, because this is extremely odd, unusual behavior.”
While three-fourths of the panel seemed to show facial expressions of concern, Haines looked like she’d just done a noisy thing in church. When Goldberg asked for her take on the situation, Haines giggled, apologized, and then continued doing both.
“This was during an election simulation which is the most – I’m sorry, I’m sorry – the most unsexy thing I ever heard of.” The giggles turned to guffaws when Haines referenced an old internet meme that seemed to fly past the cohosts: “I very much miss the days when Jennifer went to the bathroom and forgot to turn off her camera.”
As Hostin looked on without so much as a grin, Haines said, “I’m so sorry, I know there’s a lot of seriousness to this topic but I can’t fathom the situation where this was the Option A and Option B,” adding, “This is why I’m grateful to Joy for waiting till 12:01 to take her bra off.” That last crack at least got a laugh from cohost Joy Behar.
Haines’ reaction, not surprisingly, drew plenty of comments on her Twitter page, some taking her side, some not.
“It is just not a topic I could have anticipated or was fully ready for,” Haines tweeted. “In a perfect world, I could have remained calm, cool and collected…but I didn’t have that in me. And I needed that laugh.”
In response to a since-deleted tweet apparently expressing outrage over Haines’ reaction, Haines wrote, “Wasn’t that a decision he made? And a risk he took? Let’s place our outrage where it is due.”
The ratio on Haines’ Twitter feed is certainly on her side, but not entirely. Writes one follower: “No outrage at all, just tacky the way you handled it.”
It is just not a topic I could have anticipated or was fully ready for. In a perfect world, I could have remained calm, cool and collected…but I didn’t have that in me. And I needed that laugh. https://t.co/3oqUN2trd5
— Sara Haines (@sarahaines) October 20, 2020
Wasn’t that a decision he made? And a risk he took? Let’s place our outrage where it is due. https://t.co/gpzmXNG57x
— Sara Haines (@sarahaines) October 20, 2020
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