The hosts of The View were up in arms with one another again on Friday as they argued over whether Kamala Harris’ campaign message fell on “deaf ears” because Democrats were “condescending” or because voters are “misogynistic.”
Sunny Hostin asked on the show, “What’s wrong with America” that its voters would elect Donald Trump, which prompted fierce pushback from former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin and co-host Sara Haines.
“What is wrong with our country that the Republican party would choose as a candidate and support a candidate who is an insurrectionist, who is an election denier, who is someone who is twice impeached, 34-time convicted felon, someone who has been accused of alleged sexual misconduct by 26 women, found liable for sexual abuse?” Hostin said during the fiery exchange. “What is wrong with this country that they would choose a message over divisiveness, of xenophobia, of racism, of misogyny over a message of inclusiveness, a message for the people, by the people, of the people?”
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Asking “what’s wrong” with voters is exactly the problem in the Democrats’ messaging, claimed Farah-Griffin. “He won the popular vote,” she said. But Hostin doubled down, “And what’s wrong with America?”
Haines agreed with Farah-Griffin, “It‘s condescending. The way that the left speaks to its voters. It really is,” she said. Joy Behar shot back, “They sounded that way, but when you look at the proof, it warrants,” she said indicating Trump’s win.
“The message of the Democrats sounded elitist,” Griffin said, saying that she interpreted the messaging to be “You don’t have value in society if you don’t have a college degree.” She also offered her another explanation for why Harris lost. “[The Dems] lost rural voters, they lost working class voters, and, listen, I was someone who, I’m recognizing in reflecting on this election, I had the privilege of saying ‘I’m voting for democracy,’ because I’m a high income earner,” she said.
“If your check engine light is on and you’ve got bills piling up on the table, you’re not thinking about democracy, you’re not thinking about the war in Ukraine, you’re thinking about ‘how will my life be better tomorrow?’” she continued, explaining that there are “people in the suburbs who are like, ‘I can’t stand Donald Trump’s personality, I don’t like how he talks, but my life was better off economically when he was president.”
Joy Behar strongly disagreed, arguing that if that‘s the case then voters just weren’t “paying attention.”
“The Democrats are the ones, they are the party that cares for the blue collar [people] of America,” Behar said. “The democrats are the ones who put in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, union protection, unemployment insurance, and Obamacare. The Republican party doesn’t give a rat’s patootie about it.” Griffin offered, “Clearly they didn’t convince the voters [of that].”
As Haines tried to explain why she agreed that the Dems’ election messaging was “condescending,” Hostin piped up: “You mean a message of joy and inclusiveness?”
That point really activated Griffin, who shot back, “That’s not the message! You just said ‘What’s wrong with America?” she said, speaking over Haines, who was trying to say that she too thought the message was that voters without degrees were “dumb and uneducated,” a point she hadn’t expressed throughout the show’s election coverage.
Ana Navarro, for her part, added a tempered clarification: “That’s not what Kamala Harris said.”
The hosts continued the exchange without arriving at any point of consensus on the matter. Hostin was resolved that Trump’s voters “need to be introspective,” but Haines yelled back, “No! We need to be introspective.”
Former host Meghan McCain blasted The View on X Wednesday for not having “one single conservative woman” on the show “who voted for Trump or simply isn’t repulsed by his supporters to explain to America why he is still so popular.”
