Joy Behar recalls walking off The View during heated Bill O'Reilly interview: 'That was a political move'

Joy Behar is opening up about one of the most controversial moments in The View history. In 2010, she and Whoopi Goldberg were scolded by Barbara Walters after they walked out of a live interview with conservative media figure Bill O'Reilly.

"I'm never rude to guests, unless you count the way I treated Bill O'Reilly once when he was on this show," Behar said on Thursday's episode. "Whoopi and I, we walked off the stage."

Cohost Sunny Hostin observed that the incident "was a teachable moment" and that it "wasn't really rude," but rather "a lesson" in on-set decorum.

ABC Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walk out of an interview with Bill O'Reilly on 'The View'

"That was a political move," Behar joked as she smiled and looked at the applauding audience.

The debate erupted during a discussion about a mosque proposed for construction in lower Manhattan, just blocks from Ground Zero. Goldberg and Behar became enraged when O'Reilly suggested that "Muslims killed us on 9/11," to which Goldberg stressed that "extremists did that."

"I don't want to sit here. I don't want to sit here, I don't," Behar said as the argument continued. Seconds later, she and Goldberg walked off the stage together.