‘The View’ Election Reactions: Sunny Hostin “Profoundly Disturbed”, Ana Navarro Has “No Regrets”, And Whoopi Still Won’t Say His Name
UPDATE, with full video added: The View cohosts – all of whom, including Republican Alyssa Farah Griffin, supported Kamala Harris for president – reacted today with varying degrees of anger, disappointment and optimism to the victory of Donald Trump.
“So, what happened last night?,” joked moderator Whoopi Goldberg to kick off the Hot Topics discussion. “Anybody do anything interesting?”
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Watch the discussion above. Here’s a rundown of edited and condensed comments from the cohosts:
Joy Behar: My takeaway is that the system works, we live in a democracy, people spoke…I vehemently disagree with the decision that Americans made, but I feel very, very hopeful that we have a Democratic system in this country. We should value it, we should love it, we should protest if the situation arises that we need to protest which I’m sure it will. I’ve been through this before with Nixon. It’s been very difficult but boy oh boy do we have a country. If we can keep it.”
Sara Haines: “What I always tell my kids is you feel what you feel, everyone has different emotions, some people got what they wanted, a lot of people didn’t…And you take one step in front of the other. So here we are today and I still feel optimistic because I feel arm in arm with so many people who agree with me and i’m not going to stop marching.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin: “Is it the outcome I wanted? No, but we live in a democracy…And what’s important to me is this: Tens of millions of Americans – our friends, our neighbors, our family members – voted for Donald Trump. We disagree with them, I know we all do at this table, but they are good, decent people who are patriots and love this country. I can’t speak to what drove them to the conclusion of being with him, but I think it is a moment for us to listen to each other, to hear each other, express what our concerns are…This is a country where there is truly more that unites us than divides us. I know it doesn’t feel like that for many people in this moment, but we need to bring down the temperature, the name-calling, the demonizing.
“It is a moment,” Griffin continued, “to listen to the voters. I always thought he could win…I didn’t expect it to be this resounding and I think there are some lessons from it. I think we forget about rural America, I think the working class feels left behind…and he spoke to them. We might not have liked his words, but they turned out for him.”
Sunny Hostin: “I’m profoundly disturbed….I think in 2016 we didn’t know what we would get from a Trump Administration but we know now. We know that he will have almost unfettered power. I’m worried not for myself actually, or my station in life, I’m worry about the working class. I worry about my mother, a retired teacher. I worry about our elderly and their Social Security and health care. I worry about my children’s future, especially my daughter who now has less rights than I had. I remember my father telling me many, many years that I was the first person in his family to enjoy full civil rights, and now I have less civil rights than I had when he told me that.
“I am profoundly disturbed,” she continued, “that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution did not prevent someone who participated in an insurrection from becoming the President of the United States. I think that going forward the convicted felon box on employment applications better be taken off because if you can be President of the United States then you should not be prevented from employment in this country.”
After expressing concern for the health care system, the economy, debt, mass deportation, internment camps and “Elon Musk warning about temporary hardship,” Hostin said, “As a woman of color I was so hopeful that a mixed race woman married to a Jewish guy could be elected president of this country, and I think it had nothing to do with policy. I think this was a referendum of cultural resentment in this country.”
Ana Navarro: “I’m obviously very disappointed and sad. I was at the Kamala Harris headquarters yesterday in Washington and it was a very sad scene, the mood changed immediately.” She then quoted John F. Kennedy: “Whether I am on the winning side or losing side is not the point with me, it is being on the side where my sympathies lie that matter.”
Navarro continued, “I have no regrets. I worked hard as hell to elect the first Black Asian American woman as president. History slipped through our fingers again. I worked hard as hell for Donald Trump not to be president, but today, unlike Donald Trump and his followers, I acknowledge that he won and I hope for the best for our country.”
Whoopi Goldberg: “Think about this. [Harris] did this in two months. Everybody can always say she should have done this, she should have done this. She was everywhere, she talked to everybody and people didn’t come out. I don’t know why and it doesn’t even matter. He’s now going to be president. And I’m still not going to say his name.”
Even a former View cohost wanted to join the fray, though her criticism was for the show itself. She tweeted, “It is actual malfeasance on the part of ABC news that there isn’t one single conservative woman on The View this morning who voted for Trump or simply isn’t repulsed by his supporters to explain to America why he is still so popular.”
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