Turning Point USA ABC News should tell 'The View' to stop saying 'defamatory' things about the show

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Turning Point USA sent a harsh cease and desist letter to ABC News on Tuesday, asking the Disney-owned company to 'retract the defamatory statements' made on 'The View' earlier this week or face legal action.

“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 financial loss to the organization,” the letter said.

Fox News Digital has the letter, which was sent to ABC News New York bureau chief Joshua Hoyos and ABC assistant chief counsel Ian Rosenberg. It says that "The View" made "false, derogatory, and defamatory statements" about the recent Student Action Summit.

When asked for a comment, ABC News did not answer right away.

Monday was the first day that the daytime gabfest talked about the TPUSA Student Action Summit, which took place last weekend in Tampa, Florida. The co-hosts of "The View" made fun of the elaborate event by saying that it took "a page from the WWE" because of the special effects. They also said that the group was officially part of the GOP, which was not true, and Joy Behar criticized the group because there were neo-Nazi protesters outside the venue.

“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,” Behar said.

She then said that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis "did nothing," but she didn't say that the Republican governor went to the event the day before the neo-Nazis showed up.

Joy Behar — Turning Point USA is claiming they were defamed by The View and is calling for them to retract their statements.

Later on the program, “The View” read an on-air legal disclaimer to inform viewers that Turning Point USA condemned the neo-Nazis protestors who had “nothing to do” with the organization.

“But you let them in, and you knew what they were,” Whoopi Goldberg inaccurately said before the panelists were forced to read another disclaimer and explain the neo-Nazis were “outside protestors” and TPUSA didn’t let them in. “My point was metaphorical,” Goldberg said.

TPUSA's in-house lawyer, Veronica Peterson, was not happy with the on-air disclaimers, so she wrote the harsh cease and desist letter.

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

“Specifically, 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,” the letter continued. “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.”

Peterson then added, “To be abundantly clear, TPUSA aggressively and completely condemns the ideologies of neo-Nazism and has zero connection to the protestors outside the event. Since these individuals were located on public property, TPUSA security attempted to, but was not permitted to remove them.”

The letter also explained that TPUSA is a “a tax-exempt public charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)” that is not affiliated with the GOP.

“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,” the letter said. “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.”

The letter gave ABC News a deadline of July 27 for the retraction and apology.

“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,” the letter said.

This year’s conference in Tampa marked TPUSA’s eighth Student Action Summit. Prior to the event, TPUSA promised “an amazing celebration of self-expression, self-reliance and self-acceptance.”

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