Abby Huntsman is joining 'The View': 7 things to know about the Fox News host
It’s official: Abby Huntsman is heading to The View. The Fox News personality will join Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Meghan McCain as a co-host when Season 22 premieres on Sept. 4.
“We have an exciting season ahead of us and are thrilled to welcome Abby Huntsman to The View,” the network said in a statement. “She brings her unique life and professional experiences and has a smart, relatable, and distinctive point of view on everything from pop culture to politics to parenthood. We can’t wait to return to the Hot Topics table with Abby joining our panel of incredibly talented women whose diverse voices have always played a significant role in the national conversation.”
Huntsman added, “I couldn’t be more be excited to return to my professional roots at ABC News. I look forward to adding my own point of view to the most interesting and successful talk show on television today. Joining the women at The View really is a dream come true.”
So what can viewers expect when Huntsman joins the table? Here are seven things to know about the 32-year-old television personality.
1. Yes, she’s conservative.
Huntsman joined Fox News in 2015 as a general assignment reporter and became a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend. She will be the second right-leaning voice on the panel with McCain, something the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain will appreciate. On an episode of Watch What Happens: Live, McCain said it would “be nice” to have another Republican on the show.
A post shared by Abby Huntsman (@huntsmanabby) on Aug 12, 2018 at 4:16am PDT
2. She got her start at ABC.
Huntsman began her career at age 16 as an assistant booker for Good Morning America. As mentioned in her statement, she has had strong ties to ABC, interning for Diane Sawyer during college. Huntsman moved on to launch HuffPost Life and was a co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle. When the network didn’t renew the show in 2015, she moved to Fox News Channel.
3. Her father is Jon Huntsman Jr.
Huntsman has politics in her blood. She is the daughter of the one-time Republican presidential candidate and served as a media adviser on his 2012 campaign. Jon Huntsman is the current U.S. ambassador to Russia. Last month, he dismissed calls to resign following President Trump’s Helsinki summit.
4. She isn’t afraid to critique President Trump.
Although Huntsman is conservative, she doesn’t back down from expressing her views — even if her opinion isn’t favorable to the president. After Trump seemingly sided with Vladimir Putin at the Helsinki summit, she tweeted, “No negotiation is worth throwing your own people and country under the bus.” She also referred to Trump as a dictator but later apologized, saying it was a slip-up.
5. Service and giving back have played an important role in her life.
Huntsman wrote the upcoming children’s book Who Will I Be?, which explores the value of service and the extraordinary power of giving back to your community. According to her author bio, Huntsman drew inspiration from her own life. When she was young, her mom would tuck her into bed at night and ask, “What did you do today to make someone else’s day a little better?”
6. Family is important.
Huntsman is one of seven children, including two brothers in the U.S. Navy and two sisters adopted from China and India. She is married to her college sweetheart, Jeffrey Bruce Livingston, and they have an 8-month-old daughter, Isabel Grace.
Perfect day with my little family lost in the mountains ?
A post shared by Abby Huntsman (@huntsmanabby) on Aug 23, 2018 at 2:44pm PDT
7. The military is a hot-button issue for her.
In an interview with Elle, Huntsman said she wanted to give our military a bigger platform, highlighting her family ties. “I think we could do a better job of helping people understand the sacrifice that is made and who these people are that step up to serve. I know it so well now,” she exclaimed. “These are my brothers. I know their friends. They’re at my house. And I spend so much time with them, asking them about what life is like and why they wanted to do it and are they nervous about going out to serve. And it’s in those moments that I think not enough people fully understand what it means to do this, and that’s what makes America great — our men and women who put themselves forward to fight for those freedoms.”
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