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Elisabeth Hasselbeck was one of the hosts of The View from 2003 to 2013
During the 2006-2007 season, Hasselbeck had an unforgettable on-air argument with then co-host, Rosie O’Donnell
Hasselbeck reflects on the spat during her appearance on The View‘s companion podcast, Behind the Table
Elisabeth Hasselbeck may have made her return to The View, but she doesn’t like to return to her worst day there.
Hasselbeck, 48, recently spoke about an explosive day on the talk show in 2007, where she and co-host Rosie O’Donnell got into a heated verbal clash over O’Donnell’s alleged lack of support for the troops during the Iraq War. Discussing the moment on The View‘s companion podcast, Behind the Table, Hasselbeck remembered it as a moment that “determined something.”
“It’s wild, that split-screen moment. It determined something. It determined who was coming back,” she shared. “It was a stressful day. It’s not a day that I love. It’s a significant day because I can look back at it now with maturity and think my position would be the same.”
Hasselbeck doubled down on not changing anything about the argument, briefly considering, “[I would’ve] maybe tried to be a little bit more physically calm, but I don’t know. I was so passionate about the issue.”
“For me, I think that I’m proud to have spoken on behalf of the military, and I’m proud that this is a program that allowed even that passion to be shared. It’s ugly. It’s not a fun thing to look at.”
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Getting through the rest of that show and that day on set was difficult for Hasselbeck, who says, “I probably cried through the rest of the day.”
“I feel like it created this awful human rift, and I’m not sure it’s ever worth it for that. I do think we’re created for unity. I don’t think we’re created to have discord, dissension. I think we’re meant to have unity and connection. Even if I can’t see like you see, I like to see where you see it from. I love to get someone’s point of view on something and have love anyway, in that.”
Hasselbeck credits that moment with helping her land a job with Fox News, noting, “It’s why I got hired at Fox, actually. Roger Ailes was like, ‘I saw that, you’re hired.’ “
Discussion of the on-air spat arose in Oct. 2025, during an interview with Australian radio show Ricki-Lee, Tim Joel when O’Donnell claimed that former View producer Bill Geddie had staged the chaos
“Our producer [was] not an on-the-fly kind of guy,” O’Donnell said. “He wasn’t like, Mr. Let’s-Go-To-a-Split-Screen.’ That was prepared. The whole thing, I think, was a setup.”
Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck in 2006
Credit: Mychal Watts/WireImage
Hasselbeck, 48, disagreed, tearfully firing back at O’Donnell’s claims with several posts on her Instagram Stories. She asked O’Donnell to “stop the lying.”
“And even maybe if you don’t stop, I still forgive you. And it can just be so much more free, Rosie, if you can just stop. Stop the madness, stop the lying and just be free,” she continued, later adding, “I really hope that you can be released from whatever this is that’s causing you to cause such harm.”
In her own response, O’Donnell shared that she is “full of freedom and joy” despite Hassebeck’s concerns.
“Honey, this wasn’t about you or your character. It was about the truth of what happened, from my perspective. That’s it,” O’Donnell said.
“Hate to tell you, I don’t really think about you that much until an interviewer asks me,” she continued. “It’s not like I’m walking around going, ‘God, do you think Elisabeth will ever forgive me?’ I’m not. So don’t worry about me or my freedom or joy, and just enjoy your life, and I’m gonna do the same.”
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