‘The View’ hosts defend students’ atrocious heckling of Trump-appointed judge even after Stanford’s president apologizes

On Monday, hosts of "The View" defended Stanford students who heckled and shouted down a visiting judge who was delivering an invited lecture.

"Maybe all the snowflakes in the world need to get over the fact that people are going to disagree with them. ... It's your right to stand up and say, 'Hey, I don't agree,'" said host Whoopi Goldberg.

Goldberg and her fellow panelists were discussing an incident at Stanford that took place during an invited address on March 9. Students heckled and shouted down Fifth Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan to such an extent that he could not continue, as TheBlaze reported.

The heckling students allegedly worked with Tirien Steinbach, the university's diversity, equity, and inclusion associate dean. When the judge requested intervention of an administrator, Steinbach delivered a prepared speech of her own in which she verbally attacked the judge in a six-minute rant.

In the heavily edited footage aired by "The View," the dean is seen encouraging students to allow the judge to speak after she completed her diatribe. Predictably, the students read between the lines and did no such thing.

"When civility dies, learning stops and only agendas and approved narratives remain," Brett Tolman, former United States attorney for the District of Utah told TheBlaze.

Duncan requested and received an apology from Stanford's president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, and Stanford Law School dean Jenny Martinez, as TheBlaze reported. The administrators acknowledged the students and DEI dean's behavior was "inconsistent with our policies on free speech."

The apology apparently failed to convince hosts of "The View" that heckling visiting lecturers and engaging in a true exchange of ideas are quite different.

Ana Navarro mentioned that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had sent a letter to the Texas Bar Association asking them to investigate any of the students who were part of the "protest."

Navarro suggested instead that the Texas Bar Association should investigate Cruz, whom she says spread a "conspiracy theory" that lead to the January 6 Capitol riots.

"It you don't want to get challenged, if you don't want to get heckled, go to a Republican convention, don't go to a college," Navarro also said.

"What's so offensive is that one of the first classes you take in law school ... teaches you about the freedom of speech," said host Sunny Hostin, who is an attorney. "College and law school is a wonderful place to have this exchange of ideas. It gets heated sometimes."

"I like the Q and A," Hostin said. "Come at me. Let's have those discussions ... that's what the free exchange of ideas is about."

Host Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House Director of Strategic Communications during the Trump administration and also lectures at Georgetown, offered a slightly more measured perspective.

"Academia is the place to be challenged by ideas, not to be shut down," Griffin said.

"We've stopped having productive disagreements where you win on ideas. The rest of it's just noise, and you feed the other side's narrative of 'they don't let me talk,'" said host Sara Haines.

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