Cheryl Hines is convinced that the hosts of The View had not read her book when they grilled her about her husband’s track record as Health and Human Services secretary.
Hines appeared on the show on earlier this month, and the conversation was not what she had “hoped” for, she told Billy Bush on his Hot Mics podcast. “I was actually hoping it was going to be more personal on The View,” she told Bush. “It just what it was. They just wanted to grill me about Bobby.”
Hines has regularly been expected to weigh in on her controversial husband’s politics since he endorsed Donald Trump. Andrew Harnik/Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Hines seemed caught off guard by most of the co-hosts’ questions, and stumbled through her answers. By the end of the tense appearance, host Sunny Hostin declared to Hines, “The problem, respectfully, is that your husband is the least qualified Department of Health and Human Services head that we’ve had in history,” which she said was “very dangerous.”
The hosts were not convinced, and neither was The View’s studio audience, which clapped when Behar said, “It’s not fair to really put you on the spot about him because you’re his wife. I know that, but when you say that they are pro-vaccine, it seems as though Bobby and Trump are casting doubt on the efficacy of the vaccine, which makes Americans very nervous.”
In addition to insisting Kennedy was pro-vaccine as the hosts highlighted that he removed all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory, she’d also tried to defend his declarations about Tylenol and pregnant women.
“Well, they said consult your doctor before taking it,” Hines attempted, but Trump, with Kennedy by his side, stated matter of factly just weeks prior, “Don’t take it. Don’t take it. There’s no downside in not taking it… don’t take Tylenol.”
RFK Jr. is Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Hines justified the tough questions to Bush by relaying her theory that she View hosts hadn’t read the book she’d been promoting, her upcoming memoir Unscripted. “I don’t think the ladies on The View asked me one question about my book,” she said.
But evidence points to the contrary. At least one host had read at least some of Hines’ book, as Hostin asked Hines about a specific passage.
“You write in your book that friends called voicing concerns, saying ‘You can’t let Bobby do this, he’s going to get Trump elected. You’ve got to stop him,’” Hostin read to Hines during the interview before noting, “Obviously that didn’t happen.”