Talk show host blames former President Trump for mass shooting in Atlanta

Joy Behar, a co-host of ABC-TV's "The View," says former President Trump is mostly to blame for a string of shootings at Atlanta-area massage parlors that left eight people dead.

Six of the victims in the Tuesday shootings were Asian and two were white. Police have said racism does not appear to have been the motive, and instead are pointing to the gunman targeting massage parlors because they were "an outlet for him" and his sex-addiction temptations.

But Behar dismissed that motive, blaming Trump and racism for the murders.

On the show, a clip was shown of White House press secretary Jen Psaki saying, "damaging rhetoric" from the Trump administration led to bias against the Asian-American community.

"We all remember Trump calling [coronavirus] the Asian virus, the Wuhan virus, we know that there are people in his corner who do whatever he tells them to do, or they get dog whistles from him and they go out and do things," Behar said.

"It’s important to remind people… we have to keep reminding people of what happened before, OK? As far as the sex addiction defense, many celebrities have admitted to a sex addiction. And as far as I can see, sex addiction doesn’t lead to violence, it leads to sex," Behar said. "So let’s not pretend.

"I mean, how stupid are these people at this point? How stupid are they? It’s pathetic what’s going on."