The View's Abby Huntsman Defends Tucker Carlson's Private 'Heart of Gold' After Pay Equality Comments

The Tucker Carlson who argued on Fox News this week that it’s bad for society when women make more money is not the man that Abby Huntsman knows.

That’s what The View panelist said Thursday in discussing Carlson’s comments on his show.

“Study after study has shown that when men make less than women, women generally don’t want to marry them. Now maybe they should want to marry them but they don’t,” Carlson said in a clip played on the View.

“Over big populations this causes a drop in marriage, a spike in out-of-wedlock births and all the familiar disasters that inevitably follow,” he continued, listing off the horror: “more drug and alcohol abuse, higher incarceration rates, fewer families formed in the next generation.”

Back at the View table, before their talk got well underway, Huntsman wanted to make it clear that this clip surprised her based on what she knew of Carlson personally

“I anchored a show with Tucker. I sat at a table just like I do with you ladies. And this is so different than the Tucker that I know,” she said.

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“Anyone that that’s worked closely with him, like he was so supportive of my career and wanted me to succeed,” she explained. “He’s also a big proponent of marriage and families, that is probably the biggest thing for him, but he was always great to anyone he worked with: people of different backgrounds, immigrants. He loved helping them out.”

“If you know Tucker personally,” Huntsman concluded, “you would say he has a heart of gold.”

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Fellow panelist Meghan McCain echoed that, saying, “It was a pleasure working with Tucker Carlson on my behalf as well.”

However, she noted that she found Carlson’s argument “confusing,” though it seemed to her the complete segment was more about “big government versus small government and the role of economics.”

The other women of the View were not convinced.

“It looked like Looney Town to me,” Sunny Hostin said. “He seemed real nutty to me.”

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And after Huntsman defended Carlson’s character behind the scenes, Joy Behar responded, “I don’t see what good that is when he’s promoting this bad stuff to millions of people.”

“I’m just saying it goes against the person that I know,” Huntsman replied.

Moderator Whoopi Goldberg took it big picture, saying, “Men fight it, they don’t want to feel like this, but they’ve been raised a certain way to believe that they’re supposed to be the breadwinners. And so there’s all kinds of craziness out there that makes people do and say things that are really kind of questionable.”

Huntsman is the newest panelist on The View, having joined in September to fill the vacancy left by Sara Haines.

A former co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend and daughter of Republican politician Jon Huntsman Jr., Huntsman exclusively revealed to PEOPLE this week that she is expecting twins.