On the day after Today News Africa reporter Simon Ateba mixed it up with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a contentious exchange in a Monday daily press briefing ruckus, the ladies on “The View” went on the attack with one of their typically nasty attacks that are regularly unleashed against anyone who dares to push back against Democratic Party bullies.
During Tuesday’s edition of the popular ABC daytime gabfest, the shrieking harpies took turns shredding Ateba in absentia over his jousting with President Joe Biden’s diversity hire, an ongoing occurrence during Jean-Pierre’s daily gaslighting sessions where the two have frequently clashed over her rude treatment of a member of the press who is inclined to ask real questions rather than the vapid puffballs lobbed by many of the so-called journalists in the room.
(Video: MRC NewsBusters)
As the discussion about Ateba’s audacity went around the table with the co-hosts all taking their shots at him, Whoopi Goldberg suggested that he is nothing more than a “troll” who “does this all the time. This may be one of the reasons she doesn’t call on him, because he can be combative,” defending the historic first black, lesbian immigrant to hold the job of top White House spox. despite her constantly disrespectful treatment of the African reporter.
“You have to look at your behavior, sir. You have to look at your behavior because nobody wants to be jumped. Nobody wants to be jumped up there. The gig is tough enough,” she later said, lamenting the Ateba’s mean treatment of Jean-Pierre.
When it was Joy Behar’s turn, the foghorn-voiced redhead dredged up an old story about the reporter to suggest that he was a fat-shaming bigot.
“I don’t think this is a serious guy. In 2013 he wrote an open letter on his blog to a Nigerian actress saying that a topless scene she was in was offensive because, ‘you are really not attractive.’ He’s not a serious journalist,” Behar claimed.
“Let me read this part, ‘Looking closely at the pictures you released, I realized your arse was too fat and your body is in great need of some serious physical exercises,” she added. “This is who’s going to these conferences. I mean, come on.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin then opined, “I think he’s a horrible person and maybe shouldn’t be in the White House briefing room, however, he does have what’s called a hard pass I believe, which means he doesn’t have a seat assigned so when other people don’t show up, he gets to ask questions…he is with…”
After her cohosts got in more snide remarks, Hostin actually defended Ateba, noting that he is a legitimate journalist who “reports on relations between Africa and the United States, it is a global economy, he hasn’t been called on apparently in seven months.”
“If you’re going to call on Doocy from Fox News, which is just infotainment, then you should call on him as well,” she said, drawing a smattering of applause from the live audience.
After the show aired, Ateba showed that his combativeness toward those who dump on him isn’t limited to the West Wing as he took to Twitter to defend his honor, all but outright calling Behar a liar and punching back at the Holocaust-trivializing gasbag Goldberg as well.
“DISGRACEFUL: @TheView attacks me. @JoyVBehar reads a post I never wrote. I have never written anything about a ‘woman’s fat ass! @Alyssafarah @sarahaines and Whoopi Goldberg berate me without checking my background. Only @sunny said something that was sensible. About me,” he wrote.
“First and second degrees in journalism and mass communication, done only one job, never disrespected a woman in my life, love all people, never discriminated against anyone in my life,” he added. “I have been attacked by pirates on the Gulf of Guinea with an AK47 to my head, arrested in Cameroon and kept in a dark cell during an investigative story, kidnapped in Nigeria and left for dead but survived and became a better person with a kind heart. I have written countless stories and asked some of the most profound questions at countless press conferences. I am a journalist and a true journalist.”
BREAKING – DISGRACEFUL: @TheView attacks me. @JoyVBehar reads a post I never wrote. I have never written anything about a 'woman's fat ass! @Alyssafarah @sarahaines and Whoopi Goldberg berate me without checking my background. Only @sunny said something that was sensible. About… pic.twitter.com/8f8mTbSAOr
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) March 21, 2023
“The First Amendment says that I have the right to ask questions, to do my job, and the press secretary doesn’t need to like me, date me, marry me, have two black children with me. She doesn’t need all that,” Ateba said during a Monday appearance on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson show. “She doesn’t even need to like my accent.”
“She doesn’t need to like what I look like or where I come from. They look down on me. They don’t respect the First Amendment,” he told Carlson.
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