Fox’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck Is Furious Rosie O’Donnell Might Return To ‘The View’

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“Fox & Friends” co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s vacation was spoiled this week by rumors of her adversary’s return to daytime television.

Following reports that Rosie O’Donnell will re-join “The View,” Hasselbeck was summoned by her “Fox & Friends” cohorts on Wednesday to address the news.

It’s safe to say that tension still lingers from their combative time together on the daytime talk show.

“What could ruin a vacation more than to hear news like this?” Hasselbeck said on her phone call to the Fox morning program. “I know Rosie very well. We worked quite closely. Talk about not securing the border.”

Hasselbeck alluded to a heated on-air exchange between the two back in 2007 over the word ‘terrorist.’

O’Donnell had become persona non grata among conservatives when she made critical remarks about the U.S. military for the deaths of Iraqi civilians and she called out Hasselbeck, then the resident conservative on ‘The View,’ for not defending her from the right’s criticism.

The blowup led to O’Donnell’s early exit from the program.

“Here in comes to ‘The View’ the very woman who has been in the face of our military, been in the face of her own network and really in the face of a person who stood by her and had civilized debates for the time that she was there, coming back with a bunch of control, ready to re-gain a seat at ‘The View’ table,” Hasselbeck said.

But she said she isn’t surprised by O’Donnell’s anticipated return, which she believes “has been in the works for a long time.”

Hasselbeck said O’Donnell exercised “a lot of control” over the reunion show in April that served as a send-off for Barbara Walters, the longtime host of “The View.” And according to Hasselbeck, O’Donnell told her that she actually produced the reunion program.

“Now would you think that the woman who left the way that she did would be producing Barbara’s good-bye show?” Hasselbeck asked. “Here’s the shocker: it was actually her hello show.”

A spokesperson for “The View” did not respond to TPM’s request for comment.

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