Courts
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 7.27.22

TPUSA Sends Cease and Desist Demand To ABC Following Defamatory Remarks By 'The View' Hosts

TPUSA Sends Cease and Desist Demand To ABC Following Defamatory Remarks By 'The View' Hosts

Courts
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 7.27.22

Turning Point USA’s legal team has responded to what they have characterized as false and defamatory remarks made by two co-hosts on ABC’s “The View” in regards to the organization’s Student Action Summit in Tampa, Fla., over the weekend.

According to reports, a group of self-proclaimed Nazis gathered outside the event in an effort to try and associate the gathering of students and public figures with the hateful ideology.

The View co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg claimed that TPUSA “embraced” the presence of the hate group, but the organization has responded with a “cease and desist” demand.

TPUSA counsel Veronica Peterson has sent a letter, which was obtained by Fox News Digital, to ABC News New York bureau chief Joshua Hoyos and ABC assistant chief counsel Ian Rosenberg with demands that, if not met, could result in TPUSA “pursuing all available legal remedies.”

Behar claimed: “Neo-Nazis were out there in the front of the conference with anti-Semitic slurs and, you know, the Nazi swastika and a picture of a so-called Jewish person with exaggerated features, just like Goebbels did during the Third Reich. It’s the same thing, right out of that same playbook.”

Then, even though co-host Sara Haines read off TPUSA’s condemnation of the Nazis, Goldberg nevertheless insisted, “But you let them in, and you knew what they were. So you are complicit.”

The program then went to break, and after the co-hosts returned, Goldberg immediately stated: “I wanna make a quick clarification about the neo-Nazis at the Turning Point event. They were outside protesters. My point was more metaphorical – you embraced them at your thing, I felt. So, I just – they were not in the building.”

“Lemme just make sure that everybody – cause you know misunderstanding what people say is very big. So we wanna make sure – I know they were not in the building but they were in the mix of people at the thing,” Goldberg continued.

Despite the attempted correction, TPUSA responded.

“The false statements of fact intentionally made during The View’s July 25th segment were unquestionably harmful to TPUSA’s reputation and brought the organization and its student affiliates into disrepute with the public, potential donors, and current and future business partners, posing a significant loss to the organization,” Peterson wrote in her letter to ABC.

“The View hosts intentionally and falsely associated TPUSA with neo-Nazi protesters outside the event placing TPUSA in denigrating and false light and negatively impacting its public perception,” she went on. “Such action will not be tolerated.”

“The View hosts insidiously and cavalierly stated that TPUSA ‘let [neo-Nazis] in’ to its SAS event, metaphorically ’embrase[d]’ them’ and that neo-Nazis were ‘in the mix of people.’ The assertion that TPUSA is complicit or affiliated in any way with the neo-Nazi protesters outside the event is outlandish, false, defamatory, and disgraceful. Even after Ms. Haines reluctantly read the TPUSA statement that it condemns the group of neo-Nazis and that the group had nothing to do with TPUSA, its event, or its student attendees, Ms. Goldberg continues the false tirade against TPUSA, asserting that somehow the organization and its attendees were ‘complicit’ and/or associated with the outside protest,” she wrote.

“To be abundantly clear, TPUSA aggressively and completely condemns the ideologies of neo-Nazism and has zero connection to the protesters outside the event. Since these individuals were located on public property, TPUSA security attempted to, but was not permitted to remove them,” Peterson noted further, repeating a public statement that was issued early Monday morning.

“In cases where the communication is of such a nature that the court can presume as a matter of law that the communication will tend to degrade or disgrace the party defamed, special damages are presumed. Therefore, TPUSA demands that ABC immediately cease and desist from further unlawfully defaming TPUSA, retract the defamatory statements identified above, and issue a public statement apologizing for and correcting the above defamatory and false statements,” she wrote, adding an ultimatum.

“Should ABC decide not to comply with the demands above, TPUSA is prepared to promptly take all steps necessary to protect its rights, including pursuing all available legal remedies, seeking monetary and non-monetary damages, injunctive relief, and attorneys’ fees and costs,” Peterson wrote.

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