The hosts of “The View” saved author John Grisham from himself after he made an off-the-cuff remark that seemed like he was contemplating taking a hit out on a few Supreme Court Justices.
Grisham, who transitioned from being a lawyer to an author, appeared on the liberal ABC talk show on Wednesday to promote his latest legal thriller “Camino Ghosts,” which he tapped moderator Whoopi Goldberg to narrate.
Co-host Joy Behar teed up Grisham to make his questionable comments when she asked his thoughts on the “scandals plaguing the Supreme Court” — likely alluding to alleged ethics violations by conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch — and recommended that he “write a book or make a movie out of that.”
Grisham responded, “I wrote a great book called ‘The Pelican Brief’ in which two Supreme Court Justices were assassinated, and I thought about doing it again.”
WATCH: Today on The View, they provide a platform for author John Grisham to fantasize about killing Supreme Court Justices.
After the audience cheers on the idea of assassinating Supreme Court Justices, even Joy Behar tries to reign in the audience. pic.twitter.com/6yocemIj0p
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) May 29, 2024
The book, which was adapted into a film starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington in 1993, follows a young law student who is hunted by killers after writing a legal brief about the assassination of two Supreme Court justices.
After Grisham said that he “thought about doing that again,” Behar quickly interjected, “No, no, no. He means he’d write the book.”
“Writing part two! He’s talking about writing part two!” Goldberg jumped in.
“It’s all fiction,” co-host Sunny Hostin clarified.
Grisham parroted the ABC lawyer’s response by adding, “It’s all fiction. Don’t get upset.”
“It’s just fiction, it’s made-up stories,” Behar reassured.
Grisham then answered the question more somberly, stating that he believed the court had lost its credibility.
“The Court has never looked this bad in my lifetime,” he said, citing the 2000 Bush v. Gore election case, which halted Florida from recounting 61,000 ballots that voting machines had missed, as the turning point for SCOTUS.
“Some of the rulings, the ethical challenges … It went downhill in 2000 when five Republicans on the court chose to elect a president.”
He then proposed that Supreme Court justices, who receive lifetime appointments until retirement, death, or conviction by the Senate, should be forced to give up their position after a certain age.
“The court, it gets worse every term,” Grisham commented. “I have no solution because you can’t get rid of them.”
“The solution is to make them all retire at the age of 75. Every federal judge should have to retire at the age of 75,” he proposed.
“Yeah, the president gets term limits, why do they have these lifetime terms?” Behar queried.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump lauded Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for refusing to recuse himself from two pending cases involving the former president and the January 6 Capitol attack, despite backlash over flags his wife flew at their homes, which raised questions about judicial ethics.
On Truth Social, Trump congratulated Alito for “showing the INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE, and ‘GUTS’ to refuse stepping aside from making a decision on anything January 6th related.”
In a letter to Congress members on Wednesday, Alito explained that both instances, including flying an upside-down flag in 2021 and a Revolutionary War-era “Appeal to Heaven” flag in 2023, “do not meet the conditions for recusal” as outlined by the Supreme Court’s code of ethics.
Alito mentioned that his wife was the one behind flying the flags, which detractors argue are linked to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Alito, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005, stated that his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, was “greatly distressed” when she flew the upside-down flag at their Alexandria, Virginia, home due to a “very nasty neighborhood dispute” in which he claims he was not involved in.
“My wife is fond of flying flags,” Alito noted. “I am not.” He explained that his wife has a history of displaying flags supporting sports teams, colleges, and state and local flags.
In the same episode of “The View,” First Lady Jill Biden said that she was confident the polls will be favorable to President Joe Biden as the campaign trail heats up.
According to a report from the New York Times, Biden is currently trailing Trump in five of six key battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
Biden is only ahead two points in Wisconsin, despite sweeping all six swing states in the 2020 election.
“We are going to meet people where they are,” she said. “I’ve been traveling every single day, Joe has been traveling as much as possible, and we’re not going to take anything for granted, and those polls are going to turn, I’m confident of it.”
The Doctor Jill claimed that voters would choose Biden over Trump as they become more engrossed and informed about the election.
Joy Behar rages to Jill Biden about how people call Joe Biden mentally and physically unfit for office.
She claims he's "right on top of it," "competent," and "alert" while Trump is "doddering and doesn't remember anything and can't put a sentence together and has brain farts…" pic.twitter.com/kGyDhsyVIr— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 29, 2024
“As time goes on and as people start to focus a little bit more about what’s at stake and start to become educated on the issues and the differences between the two men, I believe that Americans are going to choose good over evil,” she added.
The first lady asserted that the president would outshine Trump during the June 27 debate.
“I think the American people deserve a debate, because you need to see your choices,” she continued.
“You need to see Trump, and you need to see the president, and you need to see the differences.”
“And my husband — and you’re going to see how smart he is, and the experience he has,” Doctor Jill said despite the President’s laundry list of gaffes, including claiming that he was Vice President during the pandemic at a NAACP dinner in Detroit last week.
“And then you’ll see somebody who like you’re saying — I’m going to use Joy’s words — can’t put a sentence together,” she concluded in reference to Behar’s remarks about Trump.