Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushed back on Sunny Hostin, arguing the American people had concerns beyond the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
Rice made an appearance on Wednesday’s broadcast of “The View” on ABC, and she said while she certainly agreed the riot was a horrible stain on American history, the majority of people outside of Washington, D.C. and the media were more concerned with the issues that impacted their daily lives than in continuing to rehash what happened at the Capitol that day. (RELATED: ‘Let’s Not Be Absurd’: Condoleezza Rice Snaps On Russia And China For Using American Protests In Propaganda)
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Joy Behar began the segment with a comment about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying she thought he might disagree with Republicans who wanted to see former President Donald Trump run again in 2024.
“Let that ship go. And also, probably he’d like to get past the insurrection … Am I right?” she asked.
“Now, my turn, right?” Rice asked with a laugh. She noted that she had been very critical of what had happened Jan. 6 and that anyone who violated the law that day should be prosecuted.
“I also on Jan. 6, for the first time since I was the National Security Adviser on September 11, I cried that day,” Rice continued, saying that she expected to see things like that in countries that she studied, not the country in which she lived.
“Now, I think what Sen. McConnell may be referencing is yes, it’s time to move on in a lot of ways. I’m one who believes that the American people are now concerned about what they call their kitchen table issues — the price of gasoline, inflation, what’s happening to their kids in school, I think we’re going to talk a little bit more about that,” Rice added, noting that the rise of China was also troubling.
“I hope what we’ll do is move on to the next generation of leadership,” Rice said, adding that after ten years in Washington she had no desire to go back.
“It’s politically expedient to say let’s move on, let’s move on,” Hostin argued, saying that if Congress diverted focus from the Capitol riot it could very well happen again.
“I’m going to tell you, I live in California, not Washington, D.C., and the American people do have other concerns that we ought to be thinking about and talking about,” Rice objected.
“Respectfully –” Hostin interrupted.
“Let me finish, Sunny, because as I said I thought this would happen in countries I studied not countries I lived in,” Rice pressed again. She repeated her assessment that what had occurred on Jan. 6 was wrong, but that the government had to still address the concerns impacting people day to day. “I also know that as a government and as a country we’ve got to be concerned about the things that are making life hard for Americans and hard for American families.”