“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin confronted her colleague, Alyssa Farah Griffin, for never having heard of the Proud Boys while serving in former President Donald Trump’s administration.
The panel discussed Trump’s recent claim that indicting him would cause “big problems” and whether that statement was meant to incite right-wing groups like the Proud Boys to violence. Griffin, who worked as director of strategic communications in the Trump White House, said she had never heard of the Proud Boys during her time with the administration, leading to a confrontation with Hostin.
“But did you not see that then? Because I think I remember reading that you, when you were his press secretary, you didn’t think that he needed a clarification,” Hostin said.
“And honestly, I’ve talked about this before. I didn’t know what it meant. It wasn’t honestly until it came together and the Proud Boys started organizing and came out and violently protested,” Griffin responded.
“That’s so odd to me,” Hostin interrupted. “Because I think if you hear someone telling a white supremacist group that is known for violence stand by — ” she added, referring to Trump’s remarks during a Sept. 2020 debate in which he told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” Critics interpreted this remark as Trump instructing the Proud Boys to be prepared to commit acts of political violence on his behalf.(RELATED: Ex-Trump Staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin Calls Trump A ‘Semi-Fascist’ On ‘The View’)
Griffin asked Hostin if she had heard of the Proud Boys at the time, to which Hostin answered that she, as a black woman, was “in the business of knowing these things.” Hostin then told Griffin it was her job to know about this group and handle their threats. The former Trump official said she was never briefed on the Proud Boys.
“When you have, clearly, a supremacist, and quite frankly, not to push too much on you, it was your job to know about that, right, as press secretary,” she said. “But why would you not think that’s crazy?”
“I would get national security, law enforcement briefings, I had top secret TSI security clearance,” Griffin replied. “I was briefed on a ton of violent extremist groups, even ones that he was encouraging. Never once were the Proud Boys briefed to me and that to me exposes a gap in law enforcement. I had never heard that group before until he said it on air. And I regret that I said like, I think I said ‘it’s much ado about nothing.’ It didn’t mean anything to me.”
“And then seeing what happened on January 6, and then seeing Proud Boys come up and say, ‘Oh yeah, I was there because he told me to be.’ They’re admitting what we know. So when Trump comes out and says this stuff, people have to believe him.”
Hostin concluded that “domestic terrorism is the biggest threat to our democracy.”