Joy Behar says 'grand wizard' Donald Trump risked lives by encouraging Iowa vote

Joy Behar had a mini meltdown on The View over the rise of Donald Trump in the aftermath of the results of the 2024 Iowa caucus, which suggest that the former president is on track to become the Republican nominee in the November election.

"This is what the 5 percent voted for," Behar said on Tuesday's episode, referencing the estimated percentage of the total Iowa voting base that turned out to cast ballots in the important Republican primary, and led to Trump's winning roughly 50 percent of the total vote. "They voted for a guy who, today, had to come to New York to show up in court in a case against a woman that a federal judge has already said he raped. That’s who you voted for."

Behar went on to cite Trump as losing "so many times," and used her fingers to make an L-shape on her forehead.

"You voted for a guy who said, come, risk your lives for the grand wizard. Come in the snow and the sleet, because I am more important than your life. That’s who the 5 percent voted for," she finished, invoking the title of the national leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

The 81-year-old comedian's comments came after Trump, 77, hit the Iowa campaign trail amid inclement winter weather, telling his supporters, "You've got to get out. You can't sit home. If you're sick as a dog, you say... I've got to make it. Even if you vote and then pass away, it's worth it. Remember."

EW has reached out to Trump's office for a response.

Behar and her View cohosts have long spoken out against Trump throughout the 2024 election cycle, with fellow panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin — a former Trump White House associate who resigned from his team in 2020 — being particularly vocal about the dangers of re-electing Trump as president.

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC.

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