“The View” was forced to go to commercial break after another spout of turmoil — but this time it was between co-hosts.
Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin got into a heated argument during the show Tuesday while discussing the midterm elections.
Griffin noted she expects a “red wave” and for Republicans to “win handily” for many reasons, underscoring one particular issue she has with the Democratic Party.
“This won’t be a popular opinion at the table, but I worry that some of the far left has become so negative in how they talk about the other party,” she said.
She started to explain, but Hostin cut her off to question what she meant by “far left” and to criticize her for trying to “both sides” an issue, saying that “the ‘far left’ didn’t storm the Capitol.”
Griffin shot back, referencing Hostin’s comparison last week of suburban, white Republican women to “roaches.”
“I read a poll just yesterday that white Republican suburban women are now going to vote Republican,” Hostin said at the time. “It’s almost like roaches voting for Raid, right?”
Hostin responded that the “roaches” comment was simply a simile, rather than direct name-calling.
The two co-hosts kept arguing, causing Whoopi Goldberg to tell them to “tone it down.”
“Here’s what I’m going to ask you to do. I’m going to ask you to tone it down a bit because I can’t hear anything. No one can hear what we’re saying,” Goldberg interjected.
Hostin then responded to Griffin’s accusation that she called white Republican women cockroaches.
“My mother is a white woman, I wouldn’t say that. Second of all, what I used was a metaphor, really more a simile. I said white women Republicans, I just read a poll that the suburbans are now voting Republican, that is like roaches voting for Raid,” Hostin said as Griffin attempted to interrupt her.
“Let me finish. That was John Leguizamo’s joke, a joke I used on this show a few weeks ago referring to Latinos, and no one had anything to say about it. The last thing I’ll say is I continued by saying, ‘Do they want to be in Gilead [from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’]? Do they want to lose their rights?’ You are actually twisting what I said,” she continued.
Goldberg had enough of the arguing and cut to commercial break to end the spat.
“We’re going to break, I can’t take it,” Goldberg said. “We’ll be right back.”
After the show returned from commercial, Griffin said she misquoted Hostin and explained why she called her co-host out.
“I misquoted Sunny. I think she clarified what she said: It was a simile, it was an analogy, it was not saying that white Republican women are bugs,” Griffin said.
“I think the point I was trying to make is part of the left — not the entirety, some of my best friends worked for Barack Obama, I love many Democrats — but some on the left. though, have taken such a negative approach to people who view things differently,” she continued.
“We talk about democracy at this table. My vote, my perspective, my voice, my lived experience matters as much as anyone else’s at this table, and this idea that because someone disagrees with you, we should be name-calling, we should be getting into low blows … the fact that we’re not comfortable with our kids watching our politics, that says a lot about all of us. We all have a duty — and I’m sure I’m guilty of it — of taking the tone down.”
