It took ABC’s The View till Wednesday, September 10 to finally address what many other liberal media shows had: the stabbing murder of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail. The liberal ladies huffed about the attention the case was getting and how it highlighted how dangerous their Democratic crime policies were. Moderator Whoopi Goldberg even shouted a demand to “stop trying to place blood on people's hands,” while they also blamed President Trump.
“You know, look, a young woman is dead! Let's -- let's take that into mind -- into consideration. And, yes, a man who should have been behind bars was loose and out,” Goldberg shrieked following a soundbite of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling out how the killer benefitted from the Democratic Party’s permissiveness with crime.
Goldberg ignored those policies as she whined about how the killer’s mother begged for him to be institutionalized, but no one acted: "Listen, he was a schizophrenic man. His mother begged them to take him and put him away. So stop politicizing this! This is not political! This has to do with how we take care of our sick Americans when they are in need!"
Despite the fact that the killer had been getting released for years, Goldberg and co-host Joy Behar blamed Trump’s budget cuts for the murder:
GOLDBERG: So, if y'all could stop cutting funding for places.
BEHAR: But that's why it is political. That's why it is exactly why it is a political situation because in the first 40 days of the Trump administration, this one, they terminated 128 grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). In May, they cut $1 billion in federal grants for mental health services.
SUNNY HOSTIN: $1 billion?!
Of course, since the show belonged to ABC News, they didn’t care about the facts. Behar was blaming Trump’s cuts for the killer being on the street, but NIMH wasn’t a body that handled the institutionalization of patients. It was not a place to go for inpatient treatment.
Faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin was too spineless to call out the Democratic Party policies of her fellow cast members. “I also don't think most Americans hear a tragedy and see that video footage and think, ‘Oh, is this the Democrats or Republicans fault?’ They think what went wrong and what could the solution be?” she whined.
Farah Griffin noted that “bail reform” was a problem, even admitting, “Somebody should not be a 14-time offender and be back on the streets,” but she failed to accurately label the policy as Democratic.
As they was nearing the end of the segment, Goldberg decided to be a hypocrite again. Despite just blaming Trump for the murder minutes earlier, she proclaimed: “[S]top trying to place blood on people's hands.”
“But the problem is it's not red or blue. Crime doesn't care. No one comes up to you with a gun and says, ‘Are you a Democrat or Republican?’” she decried, ignoring that the issue was policy dealing with crime, not the targeting of victims.
Thinking she was making a solid argument, Goldberg declared that if you’re trying to blame someone, you’re proving you’re to blame:
But every time you blame somebody for this it makes people say, ‘well, you let it happen because you cut -- made these cuts that -- you are not saying to us we're overcrowded, we're making cuts so we can build different facilities or we're training new people. You've got to help! You've got to help! You've got to be a help and not a hindrance.
She said this in the same segment they asserted Trump was to blame. So, by Goldberg’s logic, was The View to blame?
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
September 10, 2025
11:16:20 a.m. Eastern(…)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: You know, look, a young woman is dead! Let's -- let's take that into mind -- into consideration. And, yes, a man who should have been behind bars was loose and out.
JOY BEHAR: Well, he should --
GOLDBERG: Listen, he was a schizophrenic man. His mother begged them to take him and put him away. So stop politicizing this! This is not political! This has to do with how we take care of our sick Americans when they are in need!
BEHAR: But do you know what, Whoopi, I have to say --
GOLDBERG: Let me just say –
BEHAR: Finish.
GOLDBERG: So, if y'all could stop cutting funding for places.
BEHAR: But that's why it is political. That's why it is exactly why it is a political situation because in the first 40 days of the Trump administration, this one, they terminated 128 grants from the National Institute of Mental Health. In May, they cut $1 billion in federal grants for mental health services.
SUNNY HOSTIN: $1 billion?!
BEHAR: Yes. And they talk about mentally ill people are with the guns and mentally ill people are killing and blah, blah, blah, but then they cut the services. Okay? So it is political!
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I also don't think most Americans hear a tragedy and see that video footage and think, “Oh, is this the Democrats or Republicans fault?” They think what went wrong and what could the solution be? And for me, I think what – why this is sticking with people is Americans, we want to be the shining city on the hill where a Ukrainian refugee can come, flee war, leave a bomb shelter, and live and not get killed on American public transit. That is the problem. And there are two issues –
GOLDBERG: We’d like that for Americans.
FARAH GRIFFIN: We like it for Americans too.
And there are two issues that could address this. To your point, Whoopi bail reform. Somebody should not be a 14-time offender and be back on the streets. But also mental health services because if someone is severely dangerously mentally ill we don't treat mental health in a systematic way any more in this country. There needs to be a safe responsible place where people like him could –
BEHAR: We had it in place and then they cut everything!
[Crosstalk]
SARA HAINES: Mental institutions were shut in the 70s when they kicked everyone out on the streets
BEHAR: It was the beginning of the end.
HAINES: And then a lot of times they became homeless and then they started medicating themselves, didn't have medical care. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy of trouble. And so, this man – not everyone who is schizophrenic commits crimes, there are many that manage it with medication.
GOLDBERG: But everyone knew.
HAINES: His mom had said.
GOLDBERG: She begged.
HAINES: This isn't the first major national story we have hearing of a close loved one who they say refused treatment. There has to be something between prison and walking free that keeps everyone safe. Because when you refuse medical treatment and you are this sort of risk, you should never be out and about when the red flags were raised.
[Applause]
HOSTIN: You know, I think that everything all of you are saying is just absolutely on point on this. Having been a prosecutor, having seen people with mental illness commit violent crimes, yes, and then be placed in a federal prison or be placed in a local jail. They don't get the services they need and it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We need to take care of people that are mentally ill. It is a pandemic at this point. It is a pandemic at this point. And, yes, we must be smart on crime, but part of being smart on crime is making sure that people have access to healthcare, including mental health care, when they are in prison. And that is something that people don't understand. That doesn't happen.
So, the fall back always is ‘they need to be put in jail. They need to be put in jail.’ Yes, they do need to be perhaps incarcerated but what about a mental health facility?
GOLDBERG: Institutionalizing people and making sure we no longer deal with things like Willow Brook. I don't know if y'all remember that.
HAINES: Yes.
GOLDBERG: But, you know, the other thing is stop trying to place blood on people's hands.
HOSTIN: Yes.
GOLDBERG: Nobody in this country wanted that young lady to die.
HOSTIN: No.
GOLDBERG: Nobody. Nobody.
BEHAR: She keeps point to go Democratic states. Meanwhile, there's much more crime in red states in this country. I could list them for you.
GOLDBERG: But the problem is it's not red or blue. Crime doesn't care. No one comes up to you with a gun and says, ‘Are you a Democrat or Republican?’
HOSTIN: Right.
BEHAR: No, but its policy! It’s policy.
GOLDBERG: Or an independent. But every time you blame somebody for this it makes people say, ‘well, you let it happen because you cut -- made these cuts that -- you are not saying to us we're overcrowded, we're making cuts so we can build different facilities or we're training new people. You've got to help! You've got to help! You've got to be a help and not a hindrance. This crime is horrific. It could have been anybody's daughter.
And sometimes you have to remember when a parent is begging, begging, as his mother did, beg them to take him and put him in an institution, for God sakes somebody listen. We will be right back.
