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Rosie O’Donnell and Nicolle Wallace Spar on The View Over George W. Bush’s Handling of Katrina

Rosie O'Donnell and Nicolle Wallace
Rosie O'Donnell and her new conservative View co-host Nicolle Wallace argued on-air Tuesday, Sept. 16, about how former President George W. Bush handled Katrina, in addition to Kanye West's controversial comments about the disaster.

Here we go! Things got heated between Rosie O’Donnell and her new conservative co-host Nicolle Wallace on The View on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Their debate, which took place on their second day hosting together, began when Wallace defended conservative columnist, Charles Krauthammer, who had recently called President Obama a narcissist.

“Charles Krauthammer is a god in our world,” Wallace said. “The Republican critique of President Obama [is his] inability to have relationships… I think Joe Biden has an easier time with Congress because Joe Biden genuinely loves people.”

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“As you implying that Obama doesn’t [love people]?” O’Donnell asked her co-host.

“Yeah,” replied Wallace. “I don’t think so.”

O’Donnell retorted: “That’s bull crap. You are so wrong.” She then went on to recall Kanye West‘s controversial 2005 comment about former President Bush’s handling of Katrina in which West said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” O’Donnell asked Wallace: “It’s like an international incident, but you can say that you don’t think Obama likes people?”

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Wallace — once a Bush administration aide — responded: “George Bush, when he wrote his book, one of the most interesting things he revealed was how personally wounded he was by that statement.”

An incredulous O’Donnell snapped of the infamous August 2005 incident: “I think he was very upset in the plane as he FLEW OVER Katrina.”

“Let me just answer your attack on President Bush and Katrina,” her conservative counterpart said. “A lot of people were very happy with what got done to rebuild New Orleans. New Orleans is a safer place because of what it went through.”

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Wallace, though, begrudgingly agreed with her co-host when O’Donnell pointed out the amount of time it took for Bush to respond to the disaster. “I did not attack him,” O’Donnell said. “I simply stated the fact that he flew over in a plane before he ever went to address the people who were there and it was a very long time before he showed up.”

Their colleagues Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie Perez remained largely silent during their on-air debate. O’Donnell’s latest confrontation coincidentally falls on the same day her former opponent Elisabeth Hasselbeck marks one year on Fox & Friends.

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George W Bush

In an interview with Parade magazine, Hasselbeck said not much has changed in her strained relationship with O’Donnell since she left The View in 2013. “I reached out to Rosie for many years, including the day after everything happened,” Hasselbeck said of their infamous on-air debate from 2007. “That’s something I’ve talked about time and again. I was not met with a response, but I wish them well.”

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