Watch: Hasselbeck and Maher Spar on 'The View'

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Spars With Bill Maher Over Egypt Joke on 'The View'
by Alex Moaba, posted Nov 15th 2011 2:30PM, AOLtv.com

Bill Maher probably thought he was going on 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated on ABC) to talk about the comically inept field of Republican presidential candidates, and maybe to plug his book, 'The New New Rules.' Instead, his segment was sidetracked by Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who seemed hurt and outraged by a joke Maher told about her and CBS correspondent Lara Logan nearly a year ago.

On the Feb. 4 episode of 'Real Time,' as the Egyptian protests in Tahrir Square were unfolding, Maher made the following joke about Logan and Hasselbeck. "New rule: now that Hosni Mubarak has released Lara Logan, he must put her intrepid hotness on a plane immediately. In exchange, we will send Elisabeth Hasselbeck." Over a week later, on Feb. 15, the public would learn that Logan had suffered a brutal sexual assault on Feb. 11 in Tahrir Square. When Maher told the joke, he couldn't have known that Logan had been raped.

Despite that timeline, Hasselbeck started the segment by reading the joke back to Maher, and asking if he still stood behind it. "Would you say that again, if you're so supportive of women?"

"If I had a crystal ball and knew I was coming here and had to spend my whole segment talking about it, no I wouldn't," he replied. The rest of the panel clearly wanted to move on from the awkwardness, but Hasselbeck wouldn't let it go.