Joy Behar also called out former cohost Jenny McCarthy during the anti-vax conversation.
"The View" didn't mince words on Monday's episode as they tackled Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s controversial remarks at an anti-vax rally over the weekend in Washington D.C.
During a rally against vaccine mandates, Kennedy likened the policies enacted to fight the pandemic to Nazi Germany -- and even insinuated those facing persecution from the Nazis had better options than anti-vaxxers do now.
"Even in Hitler Germany you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did," he said. "I visited in 1962, East Germany with my father and met people who climbed the wall and escaped. Many died doing it, but it was possible."
Though his statement seemed to suggest Frank survived, she was found hiding in the Netherlands and sent to a concentration camp where she later died.
RFK JR. PROMOTES VACCINE CONSPIRACY THEORIES: The co-hosts weigh in on comments made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a rally in Washington, D.C. attended by some of the biggest names in the anti-vaccine movement to protest vaccine mandates. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/4PQnlaWgHw
— The View (@TheView) January 24, 2022 @TheView
Whoopi Goldberg was the first to call out Kennedy for his comments, saying he "repeated a comparison that really should never be made but keeps being made in the anti-vax rhetoric" before calling him out for not getting all his "facts straight."
"And he's not the only person comparing vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany. How can anyone be this misinformed? Not just about vaccines and the mandates, but about history?" she wondered. "How is it possible? Maybe it's possible because there have always been so many [Holocaust] deniers. But I find it extraordinary that people who denied the Holocaust are quick to bring it up."
Ana Navarro first gave praise to Kennedy's father, the late Robert F. Kennedy, saying the only reason anyone talks about Jr. is "because he's the son of a great man who means so much to American history." She then added, "Every family has an idiot and obviously the Kennedys are not immune to that," before calling his words "incredibly offensive" to Holocaust survivors and their families.
Joy Behar pointed out that this stance is nothing new for RFK Jr., who she called "one of the first perpetrators of the anti-vax" movement. "He's one of the people back in the day who said the measles vaccine caused autism," she continued, referring to a since-discredited study that linked the two which Kennedy Jr. has publicly supported for years.
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View Story"So people like him and I believe Jenny McCarthy was one of those people, an anti-vaxxer, they hooked onto this lie and it became a movement and now we're in the middle of a mass movement of crazies telling us that putting a mask on your face is equivalent to being trapped in an attic for 2-3 years while the Nazis are running after you," Behar continued, bringing up her former cohost McCarthy in the process.
In her book "Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism," McCarthy wrote that her son developed autism after getting the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. She has tried to distance herself from being called "anti-vaccine," saying she is "pro-safe vaccine schedule." The CDC, however, is adamant there is zero link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Bringing it back to RFK Jr., Sunny Hostin reminded everyone watching that it's "so offensive to compare anything to the Holocaust, to compare anything to the Middle Passage, to compare anything to slavery."
"I'm just surprised that that's one of the first things he jumped to. I'm surprised thousands of people showed up," she added. "In light of the fact that 860,000 Americans have died from Covid, for anti-vaxxers still to exist, anti-mask people still to exist is shocking."