Conservative commentator Elisabeth Hasselbeck and comedian Rosie O’Donnell have been at odds for years, but this week they’ve kicked it up a notch.
Hasselbeck slammed her former co-host from The View on her Oct. 9 Instagram Story, saying she “wants to spread lies and hate” days after O’Donnell said the pair’s infamous 2007 on-air spat was “a setup.”
At the crux of their feud is an argument from the May 23, 2007, episode of The View. At the time, the pair got into a heated on-air debate over the Iraq War.
Their fight turned from political to personal, with O’Donnell questioning Hasselbeck as to why she didn’t defend her from right-wing media that painted her as the villain, particularly commentators who claimed O’Donnell thought U.S. troops were terrorists.
On Oct. 6, O’Donnell reflected on the 2007 incident during an episode of the Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel podcast.
“It felt to me like I was on a basketball team of five women, and one of them kept tripping me on the way to the hoop,” she said, referring to Hasselbeck.
She added that she tried to be civil with Hasselbeck when accepting the position.
“I can not believe that this woman, after all I did for her, because when I took that job, I made one commitment to myself, that I was not going to be her enemy, that I was going to meet her as a person,” she said. O’Donnell left the show after their 2007 argument.
O’Donnell also revealed that she thinks the on-air argument, which went on for several minutes and even prompted co-host Joy Behar to ask “Who is directing this show? Let’s go to commercial,” was a setup by their now deceased producer Bill Geddie.
“Our producer is not an on-the-fly kind of guy; he wasn’t mister like, ‘Let’s go to the split-screen.’ That was prepared,” O’Donnell said. “So, the whole thing, I think, was a setup.”
While Hasselbeck’s representatives didn’t respond immediately to request for comment, Hasselbeck has now spoken out publicly. On Oct. 9, she took to her Instagram Story to post a long video bashing the comedian.
She began by praising co-host Whoopi Goldberg, who took over for O’Donnell after she decided to exit the show post-argument.
“This requires two sane people who have good hearts, who have different opinions, agreeing that we are God’s people and we’re just going to love each other through our opinions and let them be different without punishing the other person,” she said.
“This is possible,” Hasselbeck added. “It’s not possible with someone like Rosie O’Donnell, who time and time again wants to spread lies and hate.”
She claimed that over the years, she has “tried to call” O’Donnell so they could “close the yearbook” on their feud, but said O’Donnell has opted not to return her calls.
Hasselbeck then asked O’Donnell to “stop lying” about their on-air fight, adding “we’re all just trying our best.”
“Stop lying, stop, stop, and in the meantime, and even maybe if you don’t stop, I still forgive you, and it can just be so much more free, Rosie, if you can just stop,” she said.
“Stop the madness, stop the lying, and just be free,” she added. “I just pray God’s fire and glory around you so you can be protected from whatever is holding you back.”
She claimed that O’Donnell was attempting to “destroy” her character, adding that “come on, this is not how women should be... this is not what should be happening.”
O’Donnell’s representatives did not immediately respond to request for comment.
O’Donnell moved from the U.S. to Ireland after President Donald Trump’s election—another chapter in the long-standing feud between Trump and O’Donnell, which included the president’s threat to revoke her citizenship. Hasselbeck, however, encouraged O’Donnell to “come back to America” and “enjoy your nation.”
Trump and O’Donnell’s feud, like the comedian and Hasselbeck’s, goes back to O’Donnell’s time on The View, when she would sometimes criticize Trump. In fact, during Hasselbeck and O’Donnell’s on-air fight, Trump was even briefly brought up.
After O’Donnell said she wouldn’t fight Hasselbeck anymore because it was “absurd,” Hasselbeck said, “It’s much easier to fight someone like Donald Trump, isn’t it? Because he’s obnoxious.”
O’Donnell then denied ever fighting with Trump, stating that he argued with her but she hadn’t engaged yet.
“I’ve never fought him,” she said. “He fought me. I told a fact about him, he didn’t like the fact.”
Hasselbeck then steered the fight towards another issue, dropping Trump from the narrative.
