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'The View' Heats Up: Whoopi Goldberg Breaks Up Sunny Hostin & Sara Haines' Fiery Debate Over Mental Health — Watch

As usual, Whoopi Goldberg saved The View cohosts from battling it out on air after getting into a disagreement. 

Tension began to rise on the Thursday, March 18, episode of the talk show when Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines discussed the effect mental health could have on a person who is capable of murder. The conversation was regarding the man who killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women, at three Atlanta-area spas on Tuesday, March 16.

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Preliminary information indicated that the killings could not have been a hate crime, but could rather relate to the suspect's claim of a potential sex addiction (which could affect a person's mental health), Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds reported. 

The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, 21, indicated that he has a sex addiction and "an issue with porn," claiming he saw the spas as "a temptation ... that he wanted to eliminate," CNN reported. 

Despite his claim, David J. Ley, a clinical psychologist, explained: "Research shows that these ‘sex addicts’ don’t demonstrate observable difficulties in self-control."

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On the Thursday episode of The View, the hosts discussed the suspect's sex addiction claim in relation to mental health. Hostin didn't see relation of mental health to murder. "I think we have to be very careful when we start framing this as a mental health issue because that is just not the case," Hostin said. "It's really easy for people to say this kid was crazy, this kid had mental health issues."

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"Sexual addiction is a mental health issue," she added, but insisted that mental health can't be used as a scapegoat for murder. "Let's not do that for the people who are suffering from mental health issues because those are the people who suffer from violence. Not the other way around."

Haines, who has openly suffered from mental health issues, had a very different opinion and felt the need to chime in. She noted, "Sunny, just to be clear... As someone who suffers from mental health issues, including anxiety and depression..."

"I'm not saying about you Sara," Hostin interjected while Haines tried to speak. 

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Haines continued to speak: "I understand that, but we can't rule out, in extreme situations, that there are people who stand at the spectrums of these issues."

Haines explained that "not everyone with mental health [issues] snaps like that," adding: "I too would have a glass of wine and watch a show, and I do suffer with anxiety and depression, but I'm saying that you can't rule out that there are mental elements that are not well. I'm not saying that's the only lane..."

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In response, Hostin told Haines that she needs to "look at the statistics" because "less than two percent of people with mental health issues go out and kill six Asian women. It's just a fact," she added.

"Right, but you think someone like Ted Bundy is mentally healthy or do you think there's also a problem there?" Haines asked Hostin.

"Psychopathic is different," Joy Behar chimed in, trying to diffuse the situation. 

However, Goldberg had that covered. She shut down the segment by cutting to commercial. "Right, now we're going to break," Goldberg stated. "We'll be right back."

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