'The View' Hosts Dissolve Into Heated On-Air Debate: 'What Is Wrong With America?'

A conversation about the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election prompted The View’s hosts to engage in a heated on-air debate on Friday, Nov. 8.

Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro were present for the discussion, during which the co-hosts often talked over each other as they sought to get their points across. Behar initiated the discussion by mentioning that President Joe Biden had on Thursday, Nov. 7, accepted the election results and assured Americans the transition to President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration would be peaceful.

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Behar then addressed how some people frustrated with Trump’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris have begun “finger-pointing,” using a question posed earlier this week by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont as an example.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them," the senator told reporters shortly after the election was called for Trump on Wednesday, Nov. 6,

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, added, “While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.”

To open the discussion, Behar asked if her fellow co-hosts believed Sanders was right. After Farah Griffin presented her reasons for thinking that Sanders was “absolutely right but his solutions are wrong,” Hostin jumped in to “reframe the conversation.”

Related: The View's Sunny Hostin Under Fire After Unfiltered Comments About Election Directed at Women

“I think the more relevant question, actually, is, ‘What is wrong with America?’” Hostin began. “‘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.

She added, "What is wrong with this country that they would choose a message of divisiveness, of xenophobia, of racism, of misogyny, over a message of inclusiveness? A message for the people, by the people, of the people.’ That’s what the problem is.”

Behar then argued that the Democratic Party has historically been thought of as the party of the working class. “All I can deduce is that it’s the messaging,” she said of Harris’ campaign. “It didn’t get through to people.”

Haines then stepped in to argue that the way Democrats generally speak to voters is “condescending” before clarifying, “The message of not being educated, being dumb and what’s wrong with America.”

Haines added that she doesn’t “blame” Biden or Harris specifically, adding, “I blame a messaging within the Democratic Party.”

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