Alyssa Farah Griffin Invokes ‘Barbara Walters’ Legacy’ in Heated ‘View’ Clash

Alyssa Farah Griffin is reminding her View co-host Sunny Hostin of their predecessor Barbara Walters' legacy after a particularly bitter on-air sparring match during the Hot Topics segment this morning, June 7.

The discussion began with Joy Behar questioning who would even vote for Mike Pence in the next presidential election, leading Griffin to hedge about needing to hear more from the candidate before she—and likely other potential voters—could make a determination. The other hosts brought up the fact that Griffin used to work under Pence—as well as former President Donald Trump—with Hostin eventually calling her out, saying, "What scares me, Alyssa, is that you are incapable of defending a man that you worked for...I don't need to hear more from Pence, for several reasons."

"You just accused me of something, so why don't you let me actually answer?" Griffin interjected. "You're not going to vote for a Republican, ever."

"Nope, I'm going to finish what I'm going to say," Hostin snapped back. "The thing about Pence here is that, when I lived in Indiana and I went to Notre Dame, he had a terrible approval rating because of the way he treated the AIDS crisis. Awful. A lot of people died because of him. A lot of people died because of how he handled the COVID crisis."

But just the day before, Hostin had "defended Cornel West," who Griffin says is "destroying our country," which she was quick to point out.

"I'm still speaking," Hostin said calmly, but as she continued to grill Griffin, Behar jumped back in and called on the pair not to "make it personal."

"Well, Sunny likes to make it personal with me," Griffin replied. "Are you going to give me a chance to answer?"

As Hostin ignored her, continuing to read off of her notes, Griffin said, "I mean, this is absurd. This is not what the show is about! This is Barbara Walters' legacy; let a woman speak!"

As Hostin continued to speak and Griffin continued to wonder if she'd be given the same opportunity, other panelists jumped in, eventually leading Whoopi Goldberg to call for a commercial break as the table continued to devolve in overlapping conversations.

Watch the full encounter above.