New York Time Declares ‘The View’ the Most Important Political TV Show in America
In a weekday in March, less than two months before his three-year sentence in federal prison was set to begin, Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, decided to spend one of his final afternoons of freedom having lunch with Joy Behar, the veteran co-host of ABC’s “The View.” The show had approached Cohen about giving her an exclusive TV interview before going to prison, and Cohen had suggested that they meet at Freds, the tony restaurant on the top floor of Barneys, where some of Manhattan’s wealthiest wives have standing reservations. “All the people were coming up to him saying, ‘Michael, keep strong, blah blah blah,’ ” Behar recalls. “It was like he was the pope.” She had heard that at least two other media personalities, Don Lemon and Donny Deutsch, were also trying to woo Cohen, and she made her pitch for why the daytime all-women panel show invented by Barbara Walters 22 years ago was the best place for him to go. “I said to him, ‘You’ve made this complete ro
