The Office star Ed Helms sidestepped an opportunity to join the hosts of The View in repudiating Donald Trump on Tuesday, opting instead to pivot the conversation right back to the book he was there to promote.
Helms was discussing his new book, SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups, when co-host Joy Behar attempted to make a connection to the Trump administration. But Helms refused to take the bait.
As Helms rattled off a few of the government’s biggest blunders over the years, Whoopi Goldberg offered, “So you see, this is not the first time dumb stuff has happened,” to applause from the audience. “Exactly,” Helms replied.
Joy Behar then asked, “What about this administration in 50 years? What do you predict?”
Helms hemmed and hawed a bit, responding with apparent sarcasm, “Eh… oh boy. I mean, everything’s fine, right?”
Conservative host Alyssa Farah Griffin seemed quite satisfied with that answer, piping up for one of a only few times throughout the conversation to cheerfully agree: “We’re fine, we’re all here, we’re having fun.”
Helms then immediately attempted to move the conversation away from Trump and back to his book, saying, “The fun thing about the book is it’s very easy to pick and read. It’ll make you a killer at dinner parties.”
Despite his hesitance to critique the administration on Tuesday, Helms was vocal about his stance on the campaign trail last year, where he spoke at a rally for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. At the time, he compared Trump’s “fragile little ego” to his Office character Andy Bernard. “We don’t want leaders with fragile little egos,” he said then. Helms didn’t have the same energy on The View, however.
“Looking back on this moment, I think we’ll probably have a bunch of snafus” to add, was all he could muster this time around.
Co-host Sara Haines threw him a lifeline after the roundabout answer: “One of the worst snafus you ever got into was in The Hangover Part II when you’re filming.”
Helms, perhaps relieved, answered, “Yeah, that was a rough one.”
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