Rosie O'Donnell said Thursday she was "physically sick" the night Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election and needed a year before she could come out in public again.
O'Donnell, with whom Trump has feuded publicly for years, reunited with her former "The View" co-host on MSNBC's "Deadline White House." Wallace and former Republican flack Steve Schmidt bonded with O'Donnell—the comedian told Schmidt "I love you" at one point—over their mutual loathing of Trump in what amounted to a half-hour group therapy session on live television.
Along with Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, they discussed Democratic tactics in the midterms—a frustrated Wallace exclaimed Democrats should be more "bullish" about taking the U.S. Senate with Trump's unpopularity—and eventually got around to how O'Donnell processed Trump's stunning victory.
O'Donnell said Schmidt and Wallace gave her "comfort and hope" that Trump could be overcome.
"He's evil. He's dark. It's the opposite of what America stands for," she said.
Wallace said they'd never discussed how she dealt with Trump's victory that night over Hillary Clinton.
"It was horrible," O'Donnell said, describing that she was in Boston shooting a TV show and asked her therapist if she should be alone on Election Night, fearing Trump would win.
She did an impersonation of her British doctor saying she shouldn't worry so much.
"I actually got physically sick," O'Donnell said. "I got physically sick that night, and I thought to myself, 'This cannot be happening.'"
"It took me a good year to compose myself to be public again," she added. "I took a year out of the spotlight."
O'Donnell recounted tweeting shortly before Trump's inauguration that martial law should be imposed until it became clear the Russians didn't change votes with their meddling in the race.
I FULLY SUPPORT IMPOSING MARTIAL LAW - DELAYING THE INAUGURATION - UNTIL TRUMP IS "CLEARED" OF ALL CHARGES https://t.co/fUn8FZ8RTj
— ROSIE (@Rosie) January 12, 2017
"And Bob Mueller has indicted 13 Russians for election meddling," Wallace said.
"And people were like, 'Martial law? What's wrong with you? You're a lunatic,'" O'Donnell said.
"Well, he wants to send the military to the border," Wallace said, although it wasn't clear what point she was making.
"I want to send the military to the White House to get him. That's what I want," O'Donnell said.
Everyone laughed.