"I remember him lying for the liar. I don't wanna see him with a lime green shirt doing this," says Sunny Hostin.
Sean Spicer's debut on "Dancing with the Stars" divided the internet this week -- and now, it's splitting the panel on "The View."
Donald Trump's former White House Press Secretary had an embarrassing start on the ABC reality series, kicking off his run in a neon shirt while attempting to do the salsa with partner Lindsay Arnold. The performance got 4s across the board for Spicer, as the show itself drew criticism for giving a platform to someone who many believed lied to the American public while working for the president.
While Meghan McCain enjoyed the premiere and Abby Huntsman got, at the very least, a laugh out of it, Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar had the opposite reaction.
SEAN SPICER MAKES #DWTS DEBUT: The co-hosts react to the former White House press secretary's return to the spotlight on 'Dancing with the Stars.' https://t.co/XyKpC0yLbG pic.twitter.com/lpoleS3TMN
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"If he was dancing at a wedding we'd all be impressed," said McCain. Added Huntsman, "He looks like he's having fun ... life after Trump is hard. It's a reality show presidency, but where do you go after that? What is next? I think he would like to be taken seriously."
"This is not the way to do it," deadpanned Behar, who said the show should be called, "Dancing with the Liars."
"I remember him lying for the liar, repeatedly, and lying to the American people," Hostin continued. "I don't wanna see him with a lime green shirt doing this, I don't wanna see it. I have no interest." When McCain said she "kinda loved it" for the "entertainment value," Hostin reiterated, "I don't wanna see it!"
"I know him pretty well, because I used to work with him at Fox," McCain continued. "He has children who are adopted, he's a really decent man. He used to be really well respected and I think it just goes to show, when you work in the Trump administration, there's some people who come out of it and maybe they have a political future or you can be on 'Dancing with the Stars' and opening up Madame Tussauds. That's the choice you made in your life."
"Nobody who goes into the administration right now and works in it any capacity whatsoever, you're gambling," she continued. "Why I'm not mad at this is he's got kids to put through college, he's gotta pay his bills one way or the other and if you gotta dance in a lime green shirt entertaining me when I have nothing else to do at night, then I'm not that mad at it. Many politicians have done it before."
'Dancing with the Stars' Premiere 5th Judge: Was Lamar Odom or Sean Spicer the Worst of the Night?
View StoryBut Hostin still wasn't having it. "You gotta think about what he did," she hit back. "He lied about the inauguration crowd, he defended Trump's lie about how there were 3 million fraudulent votes in the 2016 election, the list goes on and on and on. He lied about the Muslim ban."
McCain argued that even his critics should get some joy out of seeing him on the show, as it's probably "not what he thought his life would look like" after his time in the White House. "Think about what ex-presidential spokespeople do now,' she added, "most of them are like extremely well-established political analysts, he's doing this."
Added Whoopi, "for a minute it felt like maybe he was going to make a turn, but people do what they have to do."