“The View’s” Alyssa Farah Griffin sparred with co-host Sunny Hostin after Griffin said she was still supporting former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the presidential primary.
Haley made headlines when she failed to mention slavery in response to a question about the cause of the Civil War.
“I do support Nikki Haley and I want to say unequivocally, this comment was wrong, bizarre, historically inaccurate. It felt like pandering, too, and I kind of get insulted by that, because the vast majority of Republicans do not want people to whitewash slavery,” Griffin said. “Maybe our elected politicians have that take, but most do not–”
“It’s the base, that’s who she’s talking to,” co-host Joy Behar chimed in.
“She did walk it back, unlike Ron DeSantis when he stepped in it with AP Black History. He kept, doubling and tripling and quadrupling down. But here’s what I’ll say with Haley. I’m still supporting her in the primary, and here’s why,” Griffin went to say before Hostin interjected.
“No!” Hostin shouted before Griffin went on to argue that Haley is not an “existential threat to our democracy” and that she agrees with Haley’s stance on Israel and Ukraine.
“This is not the first time that she has – can I just say this? This is not the first time she has been a hypocrite. She said, ‘I, as a South Carolina governor took down the Confederate flag.’ Nikki Haley, you took down that flag because you were forced to, because I was there covering that shooting in South Carolina when all those people were murdered by Dylan Roof,” Hostin said. “She was forced to take it down, and when she took it down, she said ‘For many people in our state, the flag stands for traditions that are noble, traditions of history, of heritage and of ancestry.’ So you can kiss my grits when you try to say some nonsense about you don’t – you should have said ‘slavery,’ everybody knows slavery.”
“She didn’t say it intentionally because 85% of Republicans are white and she does not want to –” Hostin continued before Griffin jumped in.
“–most white Americans don’t want to whitewash slavery,” Griffin said. (RELATED: ‘Not Ready For Primetime’: DeSantis Criticizes Nikki Haley’s Response To Civil War Question)
Haley was asked about the cause of the Civil War and responded by saying “the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run.”
“I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are. And we will always stand by the fact that I think the government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people,” Haley continued to explain. “It was never meant to be all things to all people. Government doesn’t need to tell you how to live your life. They don’t need to tell you what you can and can’t do. They don’t need to be a part of your life. They need to make sure that you have freedom.”
Haley later claimed the man asking the question was a “Democratic plant.”