Largest U.S. Kidney Patient Group Tells Disney CEO Robert Iger to Hold The View Co-Host Joy Behar Publicly Accountable for Saying Kidney Donation is Contingent Upon Political Beliefs of Transplant Recipient

Behar’s Callous Remark Made on Day 6 of National Kidney Month

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the oldest and largest kidney patient group in the United States, today called upon Robert A. Iger, Chief Executive Officer of the Walt Disney Corporation, to immediately hold accountable Disney-owned ABC network talent Joy Behar, co-host of The View, for her incredibly callous remarks made on March 6, 2025, regarding living organ donation and her abject lack of empathy toward the 600,000 Americans living on dialysis and the nearly 100,000 Americans awaiting a life-saving kidney transplant. The View is rated among the most watched talk shows on daytime television, with an audience reaching in the millions.

For decades, March has been celebrated as National Kidney Month and April has been celebrated as National Donate Life Month. Nearly 40 million Americans suffer from kidney disease, and the kidney stakeholder community uses March and April to drive public awareness of the unmet need for earlier kidney disease detection and greater living kidney donation. People living with kidney failure on dialysis have a mortality rate of over 50 percent within the first five years of treatment. As reported by TV Insider, Behar made her callous remarks of making kidney donation contingent upon the political beliefs of the recipient during a segment of The View aired on March 6, 2025 (watch here).

The TV Insider report said, “Since Donald Trump‘s election in November, Joy Behar has been one of the most vocal critics of his policies and the supporters who chose him to implement them. Each day on The View, she has some of the harshest critiques for the current administration and is always ready with a zinger on the ‘Hot Topics’ related to it. So, when asked on Thursday’s (March 6) episode whether she could ever be friends with a Trump supporter, her answer was similarly spirited. ‘I won’t give them a kidney, but I could be friends with a Trump supporter,’ she said before explaining her reasoning. ‘I mean, the thing about it is, it’s not just about politics. It’s about morality, ethics, it’s about cruelty, it’s about discrimination. So those are personal, human values. We’re not really just talking about a fiscal conservative [issue of] who pays more taxes. We’re talking about you as a human being. So it’s hard to be friends with someone who signs on to something like that.'”

In response, AAKP issued the following formal statement:

“We call upon Walt Disney Corporation Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Iger to immediately hold Joy Behar publicly accountable and demand that she publicly apologize for her attempt to create a permission structure to deny a life-saving kidney donation to another human being based solely on political beliefs and her twisted justification that the denial is moral or ethical. In fact, her comments were morally repugnant, unethical, and an insult to the underlying sensibilities of every organ donor, donor family, kidney patient, and person of goodwill. Every day in America, hundreds of thousands of families and friends witness the devastating health and financial impacts of kidney disease and kidney failure as loved ones struggle, and prematurely die, on dialysis while awaiting a life-saving organ transplant. And, every day across America, thoughtful people who truly value life and ethics make the courageous and selfless decision to donate a kidney to save another human being with zero regard to the recipient’s political beliefs. During National Kidney Month and National Donate Life Month, kidney patients and allied medical professionals work tirelessly to educate Americans on the dangers of kidney disease and why more living organ donations are needed to close the accelerating gap between the number of kidneys currently available and the number of individuals awaiting a life-saving transplant. All public figures, especially those in the entertainment industry with daily viewership in the millions, have the opportunity to appeal to America’s better angels and encourage people to do something meaningful and larger than themselves.

The Walt Disney Corporation states their mission is to entertain, inform, and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds, and innovative technologies that make Disney the world’s premier entertainment company.  Mr. Iger, as the CEO of Disney and the parent company of ABC and the ABC subsidiary that produces The View, should exercise swift leadership and tell Ms. Baher she has failed to meet the Disney corporate mission. Further, Mr. Iger should direct Ms. Baher to use The View to right the wrong she created by encouraging Americans to consider becoming a living organ donor and help save innocent lives impacted by kidney disease.  In the view of AAKP, this would be a powerful story of reflection, redemption, and inspiration that is more consistent with the mission of the Walt Disney Corporation and the high standard of excellence other Disney talent achieve.”

Since 2018, AAKP has conducted the largest nonpartisan voter registration drive in the United States for kidney patients and organ donors and, in 2024, exceeded its goal of engaging over 500,000 KidneyVoters™.  AAKP was founded in 1969 by six individuals living on dialysis at Queens County Hospital in New York. These patients organized and then advocated before Congress to make the same life-saving treatment they received available to every other American living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and kidney failure. After one of AAKP’s patient founders dialyzed in front of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee in the early 1970s, a bipartisan Congress and President Richard Nixon worked together to establish modern dialysis and transplant coverage for every American suffering from kidney failure. Unlike communist China, America has never made dialysis or access to life-saving organ transplants contingent upon a person’s spiritual practices or political beliefs.

Over the past decade, AAKP patient members and advocates have helped advance the passage of the bipartisan law modernizing the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN) via greater competition and oversight (2023); lifetime transplant drug coverage for kidney transplant recipients (2020); contributed patient insights and lived experiences to inform President Trump’s Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health (2019); supported new job protections for living organ donors under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) via the U.S. Department of Labor (2018); and advocated for Congressional legislation allowing HIV-positive organ transplants for HIV-positive patients (2013).

 Follow AAKP on social media at @kidneypatient on Facebook, @kidneypatients on X, and @kidneypatients on Instagram, and visit http://www.aakp.org for more information.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jennifer Rate

Director, Communications and Digital Operations

jrate@aakp.org

(813) 400-2394

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SOURCE American Association of Kidney Patients

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