On Friday’s show, the Oscar winner and activist was lamenting about lawmakers enacting a slew of extreme abortion restrictions since the fall of Roe v. Wade when co-host Joy Behar asked her what could be done beyond marching and protesting.
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“Well, I’ve thought of murder,” she said, before pausing for effect.
Lily Tomlin, who co-stars with Fonda in “Moving On,” a dark revenge comedy that opens next Friday, asked for clarity on the comments.
“What did you say?” Tomlin asked.
“Murder,” Fonda repeated.
Behar sprung into action, and insisted Fonda was “kidding, she’s just kidding,” before noting that pro-life advocates will “pick up on that and just run with it.” She wasn’t wrong. (Watch the exchange starting at 2:25 below.)
A short time later, Greene, a self-proclaimed “unapologetic pro-life politician,” expressed her outrage at the exchange on Twitter.
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The controversial member of Congress wrote that she routinely gets death threats “because of the nasty women on ‘The View’ and the things they say about me.” (No word about the violence her own rhetoric — saying that “Democrats want Republicans dead” and calling for a “national divorce” — might inspire.)
“Calling for us to be assassinated makes ‘The View,’ the hosts, the producers, the network, the advertisers, and everyone involved responsible for death threats, attacks, and potential murders of Pro-Life politicians and activists,” she continued.
“While women’s reproductive rights are a very serious issue and extremely important to me, my comment on ‘The View’ was obviously made in jest,” Fonda said in an emailed statement. “My body language and tone made it clear to those in the room — and to anyone watching — that I was using hyperbole to make a point.”
“Women across the country are facing real threats when it comes to our bodies, and people lose faith in our mission to protect women when others choose to focus on tangential issues and passing jokes instead of the actual problem at hand,” she added.
A request for comment to “The View” was not immediately returned.
Greene ended her tweet with the sort of diplomatic phrasing that has become a hallmark of her political reputation.
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“By the way @Janefonda your eggs are dried up so you don’t have to worry about getting pregnant anytime soon, so you can retire from demanding baby murder now,” she wrote.
It’s worth pointing out that in 2021, CNN found that before she was elected to Congress, Greene “liked” numerous social media posts that suggested executing then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and FBI agents.
Her apparent support for executing prominent Democrats as well as her embrace of racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories led to the House voting to strip her of committee assignments during the last Congress.
