You would think that an ABC News program like The View would have some sort of journalistic standard they needed to meet, but that clearly wasn’t the case during Wednesday’s episode. In their opening segment flinging crud at Elon Musk, co-host Sunny Hostin claimed he had killed nearly 300,000 children and co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar hinted that he knew how President Trump stole the 2024 presidential election.
Before claiming Musk had the blood of nearly 300,000 children on his hands, Hostin mocked Musk for not cutting as much government spending as he wanted. “[H]e promised to slash $2 trillion from our $7 trillion budget. Then he moved it down to 1 trillion then it turns out he cut about 160 billion, which is about 2.3 percent,” she chided. “So really, he saved our country less than one percent, nothing!”
Without evidence or a citation of a source, Hostin proclaimed that Musk was personally responsible for killing all those kids:
But the damage that he did was just really incredible. He slashed 250,000 federal employees, more than 8,500 contract, more than 10,000 grants and his cutbacks on medical research cost the lives – for the foreign aid, cost 300,000 lives mostly children. That's the damage that Elon Musk did.
“So, I don't think anyone should be listening to him about anything! In my opinion,” she shrieked.
Near the top of the segment, moderator Goldberg whined about Musk speaking out against Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” “And I do wonder, I do wonder why Elon thinks people are going to listen now to him because he just spent several months destroying people's lives!” she sneered while waving her arms around in the air. “So now suddenly you woke up, you know, you came out your fog?”
It was further into the segment that all three of the elder-matrons of The View teamed up to suggest that Trump was afraid of Musk because he had the “receipts” for how Trump really won the 2024 presidential election:
GOLDBERG: And then that if one was going to think, you know, ‘ooh, maybe this happened.’ You know, Elon knows the 411 on everything.
HOSTIN: Yeah, he got all that information.
GOLDBERG: He knows how all this came down. So now, suddenly he's like, ‘well, oh, harrumph.’
[Laughter]
BEHAR: So, Trump should be afraid of him because he –
GOLDBERG: I think Trump is afraid of him.
BEHAR: - because he has the receipts on the election too.
GOLDBERG: I think he is afraid of him.
This wasn’t the first time The View cast floated the unfounded conspiracy theory that Trump had rigged the 2024 election.
On May 1, Goldberg scolded Trump for bragged about investors believing he would win months before he did, suggesting it was insider trading: “I think he should stop saying that because you’re going to make somebody investigate how investigators would know you were going to win. I'm just putting that out there.” In 2019, they suggested Trump was going to enlist the help of Russia to rig the 2020 election.
There were no legal notes delivered for the anti-Musk conspiracies spewed on June 4.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
June 4, 2025
11:03:34 a.m. Eastern(…)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Well, President Taco D. has yet to respond.
[Applause]
And I do wonder, I do wonder why Elon thinks people are going to listen now to him because he just spent several months destroying people's lives!
SUNNY HOSTIN: Yes.
GOLDBERG: So now suddenly you woke up, you know, you came out your fog?
[Laughter]
JOY BEHAR: You know what, Musk - Musk is more favorable numbers than Trump it looks like.
GOLDBERG: Today.
BEHAR: Yeah, he has been 83 percent favorability among Trump voters from 2024. So, he's hurting Trump in a way. They like him better. How bad do you have to be for them to like – [trails off]
(…)
11:05:28 a.m. Eastern
HOSTIN: But for me this Elon Musk thing really gets me, because, remember, he promised to slash $2 trillion from our $7 trillion budget. Then he moved it down to 1 trillion then it turns out he cut about 160 billion, which is about 2.3 percent, and that doesn't take into account the $135 billion in severance that they have to pay to the folks that he fired, nor does it include the litigation fees. So really, he saved our country less than one percent, nothing!
But the damage that he did was just really incredible. He slashed 250,000 federal employees, more than 8,500 contract, more than 10,000 grants and his cutbacks on medical research cost the lives – for the foreign aid, cost 300,000 lives mostly children. That's the damage that Elon Musk did.
So, I don't think anyone should be listening to him about anything. In my opinion.
(…)
11:07:51 a.m. Eastern
GOLDBERG: And then that if one was going to think, you know, ‘ooh, maybe this happened.’ You know, Elon knows the 411 on everything.
HOSTIN: Yeah, he got all that information.
GOLDBERG: He knows how all this came down. So now, suddenly he's like, ‘well, oh, harrumph.’
[Laughter]
BEHAR: So, Trump should be afraid of him because he –
GOLDBERG: I think Trump is afraid of him.
BEHAR: - because he has the receipts on the election too.
GOLDBERG: I think he is afraid of him.
(…)