Joy Behar said Friday that Americans should share her embarrassment over the current state of the country, agreeing with comedian Larry David that the White House’s recent UFC event represented a national humiliation and a troubling symbol of how political spectacle has overtaken tradition.
During the Friday episode of ABC’s The View, Behar played a clip of David calling the June 14 UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn a “travesty” and saying he was “embarrassed to be an American.” According to reporting from the Hollywood premiere of his HBO project Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America, David’s remarks quickly became a flashpoint in the broader cultural debate over patriotism and political identity.
Behar did not distance herself from the sentiment. Instead, she leaned into it.
“I’m very good friends with Larry David, and so I’m not going to I think he’s right in many ways,” she said on air. “I mean, you listen to Trump. We used to have friends around the world. Now we don’t have them anymore.”
Her comments framed the controversy not just as a disagreement over entertainment at a national landmark, but as a reflection of America’s shifting global posture and internal divisions.
Immigration Becomes the Emotional Center of Behar’s Criticism
Later in the segment, Behar expanded her criticism, tying her embarrassment directly to immigration policy under Donald Trump’s second term.
“I have to say that I’m embarrassed for this country, the way he’s been treating immigrants,” she said. “He’s been separating kids from their families.”
She then brought her own family history into the discussion, invoking her Italian-American background as part of the broader American immigration story. Behar said her family arrived from southern Italy roughly a century ago and described Italian Americans as deeply patriotic precisely because of the opportunity they found upon arriving in the United States.
“And now he treats immigrants the way he treats them,” she added. “And, of course, Larry is embarrassed to be an American. In that way, we should all be.” Her remarks sharpened the tone of the discussion, shifting it from political disagreement to something more personal: how national identity is shaped by generational memory, migration, and belonging.
A White House UFC Event That Ignited Controversy
The debate centered on the UFC Freedom 250 event held on the White House South Lawn, part of a broader celebration tied to America’s 250th anniversary. The event, which coincided with Trump’s 80th birthday, was presented as part of a national commemorative series but quickly drew criticism for blending combat sports with presidential symbolism in an unprecedented way.
The event also sparked controversy beyond politics. A federal lawsuit sought to block it before it took place, but a judge ultimately rejected it.
Inside The View discussion, co-host Sunny Hostin described the event as “tacky” and “trashy,” and condemned remarks made by UFC fighter Josh Hokit during a post-fight interview, which included a derogatory comment about former first lady Michelle Obama. UFC President Dana White later criticized the statement, according to CBS News reporting.
Hostin drew a careful distinction, saying she was not embarrassed to be American, but rather embarrassed by the administration and the White House event itself.
“I can’t say I’m embarrassed to be American, but I am embarrassed by this administration,” she said. “I am embarrassed by Donald Trump, and I am absolutely embarrassed by what happened on the White House lawn.”
Dividing Lines on Patriotism Inside the Panel
The conversation on The View reflected a familiar national divide over whether criticism of the president becomes criticism of the country itself. Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin pushed back against the framing that embarrassment over political leadership equates to embarrassment over America as a whole. She said the country remains larger than any single president and emphasized her own pride in being American.
Co-host Sara Haines echoed a similar sentiment, urging viewers not to outsource their patriotism to the current political moment.
“Trump is here for eight years out of 250; that’s a blip in time, and I refuse to hand over my patriotism, my pride of this country,” Haines said. “So I would not decide that I represent Donald Trump as an American out in the world. He happens to be the current president, and that’s what it is.” Ana Navarro added another layer, highlighting that in many countries, expressing public criticism of leadership could carry severe consequences. She pointed to nations such as Iran, Cuba, North Korea, and Nicaragua, noting her own personal connection to political exile.
“There’s some people that are going to take issue with Larry David saying something like that, but there’s so many countries where if you said something like that about being embarrassed by that country, you would end up dead,” Navarro said. Her point underscored the tension at the heart of the segment: the paradox of criticizing America while also recognizing that the freedom to do so is itself a defining national value.
A Debate About Image, Identity, and Power
For Behar, the issue extended beyond one televised event. It was about how the United States presents itself to the world under a presidency that she argues has damaged both its moral standing and its treatment of immigrants. For her critics on the panel, the concern was equally about protecting the idea of America from being defined by any one administration.
Between those positions lies the same unresolved question that surfaced throughout the segment: whether national embarrassment is a rejection of the country itself or a form of engagement with its direction.
The UFC Freedom 250 event may have been staged as a celebration of American history, but for many of the voices on The View, it became something else entirely a symbolic battleground over what America is, what it should be, and who gets to define its image at 250 years old.
