Joy Behar Rips Carrie Underwood for ‘Normalizing’ Felon Trump

The View co-host Joy Behar on Tuesday criticized country singer Carrie Underwood’s rationale for agreeing to perform at Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Underwood, whose politics had been private until the announcement Monday by Trump’s transition team, explained her decision:

“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” she told the Daily Beast in a statement. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”

Behar begged to differ.

“She says, ‘I love our country.’ How do you love your country and support and normalize somebody who was a convicted felon who really wants to destroy the country, in my opinion?” Behar wondered. “I don’t understand how you say you love your country at the same time that you normalize this convicted felon.”

Co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Sunny Hostin each seemed to be more accepting of Underwood’s move.

“People do what they do for whatever reasons. It’s like Joe and Mika,” Goldberg said, referencing the morning MSNBC hosts’ trip to Mar-a-Lago to effectively get in the president-elect’s good graces. “They felt that’s what they needed to do, and I’ve got to stand behind them, you know? And I stand behind [Underwood].”

“If I believe I have the right to make up my mind to go perform someplace, I believe they have the same right,” she continued.

Griffin and Hostin added that they wouldn’t have opted to perform, but said they understood Underwood’s choice.

“From a business standpoint, it’s not a bad decision,” Griffin said. “Seventy-five million people voted for Trump. Artists tend to skew left-leaning. So, overnight she’s going to become an icon of MAGA and the American right. She’s probably going to make a lot of money off of it. So, I get why she did it.”

Hostin said that her response if asked would be a “hard no,” but that “you have a right to perform where you want to perform.”