The hosts of The View — Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin — engaged in a heated debate regarding CNN’s recent town hall with Donald Trump. Co-host Sunny Hostin reaffirmed her belief that the former president and current frontrunner for the Republican party in the 2024 election should not be given a platform.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg expressed her disappointment in CNN, stating they lacked courage. Meanwhile, co-host Joy Behar admitted that she was mistaken in her previous assertion that CNN should have aired the town hall with Trump.
“I admit I was mistaken,” Behar acknowledged. “While Sunny argued against showing him, I took the stance that they should, as I strongly advocate for the First Amendment and believe that everyone should reveal their true selves so we can make informed decisions through voting. However, I didn’t anticipate that the audience would be filled with fervent supporters, almost like a cult. It makes me wonder if CNN was distributing Kool-Aid before the event started.”
“Why would CNN deliberately fill the audience with people who adore him? If I perform a comedy show and the entire audience loves me, I’ll naturally be funnier. It’s how it works. But if people in the audience don’t particularly find me funny, I have to work harder to win them over. That’s what I witnessed last night. I saw a subpar stand-up comedian with a group of devoted followers who adore him. And to me, that’s not what being American is about. That’s not American,” Behar elaborated.
The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin expressed a different viewpoint.
“This is democracy. 74 million people voted for Trump, and he remains the GOP front-runner. He didn’t win over a single voter with the town hall. It may have been detrimental to the support of independents and moderates, but it’s not the media’s role to decide who becomes president or who should have a platform.”
Hostin criticized Collins for taking too long to rebuke Trump during the town hall and questioned Griffin before commenting that she believed Collins was unprepared.
“I don’t think Collins was adequately prepared for the town hall,” Hostin stated. “I still believe that Trump should not have been granted a platform. I was waiting for real-time fact-checking to happen.”
Griffin countered Hostin’s statement, pointing out that Collins had fact-checked Trump right from the start of the event.
