Co-hosts of "The View" quickly interjected to clarify that author, former lawyer John Grisham was not talking about assassinating Supreme Court judges during a recent guest appearance on their show.
"I wrote a great book called ‘The Pelican Brief’ in which two Supreme Court Justices were assassinated, and I’ve thought about doing it again!" Grisham said during a Wednesday guest appearance on ABC’s "The View," sparking laughter from the audience.
"No, no, no, no!" co-host Joy Behar quickly replied.
"Writing part two!" Goldberg clarified along with other hosts. "He’s talking about writing part two!"
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Grisham then said to the audience "It’s all fiction. Don’t get upset."
"It’s just fiction," Behar said, echoing his phrasing. "It’s just made up stories."
Grisham appeared on the show to promote his latest book, "Camino Ghosts," whose Audible audiobook version is read by "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg. Behar had asked the author for his opinion about the current Supreme Court, which currently has a conservative majority, and whether he would write a book or film about the court’s current controversies.
"The court has never looked this bad," Grisham said about the real-life Supreme Court. "In my lifetime, some of the rulings, the ethical challenges, it went downhill in 2000 when five Republicans on the court chose to elect a president, it was political, Bush versus Gore, that’s when it all started really going downhill."
After arguing the Supreme Court gets worse every term, Grisham suggested, "So I have no solution, because you can’t get rid of them. The solution is, make them all retire at the age of 75. Every federal judge should have to retire at the age of 75."
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Earlier in the episode, First Lady Jill Biden, the wife of President Joe Biden, offered a dystopian vision of America if Trump regains the presidency and manages to appoint another Supreme Court Justice.
"We cannot take things for granted," she warned, "and think of the Supreme Court for God’s sake. Talk about things getting worse? Can you imagine if we put any more Republicans on the Supreme Court? No! We will lose all of our rights!"
