Bill Maher may not have been in The View studio this morning, but that didn’t stop him from stirring up a fight at the Hot Topics table. Maher blasted liberals on his show this weekend for blaming Vice President Kamala Harris‘ loss “on racism and sexism,” but not everyone agreed with his take.
After playing a segment from Maher’s Nov. 15 show — in which he proclaimed, “They don’t want your pity. And Black people can’t afford to indulge rich white people’s need to endlessly flagellate themselves. They just want prices to go down, and good jobs and the police when you call them” — tensions flared between Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sunny Hostin.
The two co-hosts have been at each others’ throats since Donald Trump won the presidency earlier this month, and today was no different. Hostin rejected Maher’s theory, saying, “It’s very difficult for people to believe that racism and misogyny [are] just alive and well … my lived experience tells me that it does still exist, even if your lived experience doesn’t tell you that it exists.”
Hostin then pulled up a graph showing “a clear racial divide” and an education divide between who voted for Trump and Harris. Griffin interjected to argue that Maher’s “whole point” was that Americans “didn’t vote for [Trump] because of racism and misogyny.”
Griffin continued, “The biggest common denominator in this election is, people want a good life, an ability to provide for their family, and whether or not we agree with Trump’s plan—” but she was interrupted by Hostin, who questioned why Black people — whom she described as “one of the poorest demographics in this country” — voted for Harris, not Trump.
While Griffin said more Black voters turned out for Trump this year, her argument with Hostin only intensified, with the two women talking over each other about the stats in Hostin’s graph.
“The stats are the stats,” Hostin insisted, as Griffin shot back, “But it doesn’t say, ‘I’m white, I voted for Donald Trump because of racism.’” Clearly exasperated, she then asked, “What stats are you talking about?!”
Before the tense moment could get any more uncomfortable, Whoopi Goldberg used her moderator skills to cut off her co-hosts. “Hold on, hold on!” she urged Hostin and Griffin. “Calm down.”
Holding her hands up to halt the argument, Goldberg said, “Everybody just take a breath. Take a breath. Take a beat!”
With that, the fighting ceased. But, we have a feeling Hostin and Griffin won’t reach a peace pact any time soon.
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.
