Donald Trump hasn’t even taken office yet and today there was already a sense of discord and bad vibes on The View that has barely been seen since You Know Who’s first term and Meghan McCain’s tenure on the ABC daytime talk show.
A heated, cross-talking debate on school vouchers between liberal prosecutor Sunny Hostin and Republican (and former Trump staffer) Alyssa Farah Griffin was interrupted several times by an increasingly frustrated Whoopi Goldberg whose attempt at moderating the discussion was met with continued arguing.
“Don’t make me shut this bad boy down again,” an angry Goldberg said after Hostin and Griffin resumed their cross-talking even after a commercial break that seemed meant to calm things down.
The debate – Hostin is opposed to vouchers, Griffin in favor – came during a Hot Topics discussion of Trump’s intention to name conservative megadonor Linda McMahon as his secretary of education (as well as the president-elect’s stated desire to abolish the Department of Education).
After the discussion moved toward the subject of school choice and vouchers, Griffin explained her support of both by saying, “If you’re in a school that’s falling behind and your parent wants to give you the opportunity to get a leg up…a parent should be able to make the best choice for their student.”
Hostin took the opposite position. “What happens with vouchers, the studies show very clearly that they fund students who are already attending private schools, so people with money get those vouchers and use the vouchers to pay less for their private schools and their kids go on to do well. Where do you get the money to pay for those vouchers? You pull the money from those poor schools…I’m not making this up, this has been studied.”
As Hostin continued, Griffin made repeated attempts to make a point. “Can I get in just to make it a conversation?” she said, then, getting personal, suggested that Hostin attended private schools while she, Griffin, was in public schools. Hostin continued talking.
At one point, Griffin seemed to say something about Hostin and cohost Joy Behar snapped, “That goes for you too.” An annoyed Griffin then responded, “I haven’t been able to get a word in, she’s been talking for three minutes,” referencing Hostin.
“Nobody can figure out what’s being said here,” a stern Goldberg said, at which point Hostin attempted to say “one last thing.”
“No, there is no last thing right now,” Goldberg shot back. “We’re going to go to break.”
After returning from the commercial break, Goldberg and her cohosts were smiling. Goldberg, as she often did when McCain and Behar argued back in the day, explained to the cohosts and the audience that “this is the beauty of people who have different opinions, sometimes it’s messy.” After joking about an apparent earlier teleprompter glitch, Goldberg said, “There’s something in the air.”
A serious Behar then said, “You know what’s in the air, Whoopi? Trumpism. We lost the election. We’re miserable, half of this country is miserable. And let’s just tell the truth: We hate that he won. We hate it. Everybody is uptight and crazy right now.”
Hostin then returned to the point she attempted to make before the break, saying, “I’m not going to say I hate that he won. I don’t feel that way, but I do want to be very clear-eyed about the policies. [There is] zero statistical significance that voucher programs improve overall student success, in fact it’s quite the opposite.”
Goldberg then got the final say (after Behar snapped at the other cohosts, “Let her talk”). “The problem with the school system is we allow failing schools because we don’t bolster them,” Goldberg said. “We don’t pay teachers, we don’t take care of the students that need to be taken care of.”
Goldberg then addressed the audience. “Everyone in this audience do me a favor, take a big deep breath…and let it go.”
