Breitbart News has learned that less than a month before Barbara Walters defended Bill Maher’s vicious attacks on Sarah Palin’s special-needs son, Walters personally called Palin’s camp to ask if the former Alaska governor could be a guest co-host on The View sometime during the months before the legendary anchor retires from TV journalism.

Maher mocked Palin’s special needs son by referring to him as “retarded” during a June 8 Las Vegas show.

When Palin’s schedule did not allow for her to guest host, Palin’s advisers left the invitation as an open question. This backstory makes Walters’s refusal to defend Palin’s special needs son, Trig, from Bill Maher’s “retarded” attacks even more interesting.

Walters, who grew up with a special needs sister, said on June 17 on The View that she did not think Maher was “mean-spirited” when he referred to Palin’s son as “retarded.” Walters speculated that Maher did not know the word could be hurtful. Maher, it should be noted, has had a history of making degrading and malicious comments toward women and kids with special needs. And as Breitbart News’ John Nolte pointed out, even Walters’s in-studio audience was not buying this defense and was left silent. 

Palin adviser Doug McMarlin told Breitbart News, “A few weeks ago, Barbara Walters invited Governor Palin to guest host The View, schedules didn’t work, and now she and Whoopi are defending this despicable behavior attacking Governor Palin’s young special needs son.” 

“I don’t imagine the ladies of The View would stand by if Maher attacked Barbara’s special needs sister or write it off as if he just didn’t realize what he was doing,” McMarlin continued. “Bill Maher has made millions off of violent and hateful speech designed to keep him in the headlines; his behavior is indefensible.”

Breitbart News documented Walters’s comments on the June 17 edition of The View:

Walters: I’m very grateful that it has changed. But there are people who don’t know that, and they use the word retarded.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Do you think Bill Maher is one of those?

Walters: I don’t know, I don’t. I think that, you know, unless you’re a little more familiar, you don’t even know the term mentally challenged….Do I think it was unfortunate that he did it? Yes, I do. Do I, do I think he realized what it was? No, I don’t. I mean, I don’t think he intended it to be mean-spirited. He likes to take on Sarah Palin, a lot of people do. She can fight back. And she did. And I’m glad she did.

Goldberg, along with Walters, also defended Maher:

Goldberg: You know, I think that we, society took the word “retarded” and made it into something derogatory. I think we made it a bad word by utilizing, well because we turned it into, you know, something that you call somebody to make them feel bad, to feel different.

Maher’s comments came to to light after Breitbart News contributor Ron Futrell attended and confronted Maher during his show on June 8, after he heard the comic refer to Trig as “retarded.”

When Palin heard about Maher’s attacks, she tweeted the Breitbart News article and then ripped Maher. The “Mama Grizzly” called Maher a “bully” and said, “on behalf of all kids whom you hatefully mock in order to make yourself feel big” she hoped Maher’s “lily, white wimpy a**” would get flattened.

Walters did concede, though, that Palin knows how to “fight back” and was “glad” that she did.