The hosts of The View were divided over Amber Ruffin’s firing as emcee from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner next month following her comments on The Daily Beast podcast that Republicans are “a bunch of murderers.”
Former Donald Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin began by defending the decision to bail on both Ruffin—and a comedian host altogher. “I watched that,” she said of Ruffin’s podcast comments, “and the most important thing that journalists need to do in this moment is be able to show that they can objectively, without fear or favor, cover this administration, and ‘objectively’ is the keyword.”
“And for a lot of Americans, when there’s record high distrust in the media, if you have them sitting in a room with somebody who basically said Trump administration officials are subhuman, they’re a bunch of murders, it adds to distrust in the press,” she added.
On Thursday, Ruffin told hosts comedian Samantha Bee and Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles that the Trump administration are “kind of a bunch of murderers,” and that playing to both sides “makes them feel like human beings, but they shouldn’t get to feel that way, ‘cause they’re not.”
By Saturday, Eugene Daniels, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, announced to its members that its board had “unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year” in order to “ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.”
Sunny Hostin, meanwhile, strongly disapproved, telling Griffin, “I disagree. I mean, it just seems to me that when you capitulate and give in to a bully, that bully will continue bullying you. It’s like the schoolyard bully, You know, if he takes your lunch one day, he’s going to take your lunch again.”
As Hostin added that she knows Daniels “very well,” but feels he “capitulated just like Chuck Schumer did,” Griffin cut in that Ruffin’s firing was “unanimous.”
Ana Navarro echoed Hostin’s point that Ruffin, as a Black, queer woman, emceeing the event would’ve “had great significance” since “these are communities that feel they are being erased and are under attack.”
Griffin couched her point by saying, “Eugene Daniels, the president of WCA is a Black, gay man himself, so there is representation that is going to be there—he’ll be chairing it and emceeing the event.”
“I was very surprised,” Griffin continued, to hear Ruffin “say, subhuman and ‘you’re murderers.’ Maybe say, ‘You’ve had actions that I don’t think are humane’ or ‘I think you’ve contributed to death.‘”
Whoopi Goldberg countered that, however, by explaining, “When you’re talking to an interviewer, you’re not doing your show. You’re answering the question.”
Griffin took the point, and offered a soft, “I mean, I think she’s funny.”
