The hosts on “The View” thought when Dr. Phil McGraw appeared as a guest on Monday, he would only promote his upcoming book. But things then the famous TV host changed the subject and rattled hosts when he unloaded on the deleterious effects school closures had on innocent children during the COVID pandemic.
The segment took a turn when co-host Sara Haines asked Dr. Phil a question about how social media has resulted in parents adapting to ensure they’re still “the best voice” in children’s ears. He responded by noting how the introduction of smartphones caused young people to stop living active lives, resulting in a massive rise in depression and suicide.
Dr. Phil then shifted gears and detailed how the COVID-19 pandemic made everything worse for children. He specifically noted that when the schools shut down, reporters were no longer mandated to report on children being abused and sexually assaulted. The kids were instead sent back home to their abusers.
An upset Whoopi Goldberg attempted to excuse this terrible reality by claiming government officials were just “trying to save kid’s lives.” She then tried to claim America just got “lucky” because we kept kids locked up.
A stunned Ana Navarro missed Dr. Phil’s point completely and stupidly asked him if he was saying no school child died from COVID.
Dr. Phil was not interested in their nonsense. He gave the hosts one last reality check, pointing out that the children were the safest group and continue suffering from COVID mismanagement.
The audience applauded him at the end. Goldberg then thanked him, and the show went to a commercial break.
WATCH (Key segment begins at 7:09):
Dr. Phil just went on “The View” and dunked on all the hosts over how insane covid school closures were. And their audience cheers him! Dr. Phil from the rafters! pic.twitter.com/SQtq68SkFM
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 26, 2024
Transcript:
Dr. Phil: In, like, ’08, ’09, smartphones came on, and kids started, they stopped living their lives and starting watching people live their lives, and so we saw the biggest spike and the highest levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicidality, since records have ever been kept, and it’s just continued on and on and on.
COVID hits ten years later. And the same agencies that knew that are the same agencies that shut down the schools for TWO YEARS. Who does that?
Who takes away the support system for these children and shuts it down?
And by the way, when they shut it down, they stopped the mandated reporters from being able to see children that were being abused and sexually molested, and in fact, sent them home and abandoned them to their abusers. And referrals dropped 50-60%.
Goldberg: They were trying to save kids’ lives. We know folks who died during this, so it wasn’t people who…
Dr. Phil: Not schoolchildren.
Goldberg: Well, you know what, we’re lucky ’cause we kept them out of the uh, uh, places they could get not sick.
Navarro (stunned): Are you saying no schoolchildren died from COVID?
Dr. Phil: I’m saying it was the safest group. They were the least vulnerable group.
They suffered and will suffer more from the mismanagement of COVID than they will from the exposure to COVID. And that’s not an opinion. That’s a fact.
