ABC's Hasselbeck Admits She Finds Rosie's 'Radical Christianity' Remarks Absurd

January 8th, 2007 5:38 PM

The Sunday debut of "Hannity’s America" on the Fox News Channel featured Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the only non-liberal co-host on ABC's "The View." During the interview, Hannity and Hasselbeck discussed some controversies involving her colleague Rosie O’Donnell. Through the discussion about the war of words between Donald Trump and Rosie, Hasselbeck mildly defended her co-host and even asserted that despite political differences, Rosie is her "friend."

However, when Sean Hannity inevitably came to Rosie’s controversial statement "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam," Hasselbeck did not come close to defending her "friend." Hasselbeck even called O’Donnell’s comments "absurd." The entire transcript is below.

Sean Hannity: "I think a lot of people look at you as the only voice of sort of mainstream conservatism on the voice, on the show. Although I don't think you are that political, but you have strong opinions on issues. I think one of the best exchanges that you and Rosie had was when she made the statement that radical Islam is the same as radical Christianity."

Rosie O’Donnell (on video): "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America."

Hannity: "Which was absurd, in my view."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "It was absurd." 

Hannity: "And you were pretty shocked."

Hasselbeck: "Yeah, I was pretty shocked and I have no problem. The good thing is I don’t, I think, in a face of a comment like that or something that I find just so out there, I have, I almost can't stop myself. You know, I’m a passionate person, so if I feel as though something’s out there that's not the truth I don’t, I can't hold back. And that's when the fun things happen and those little discussions come out."