On Monday’s episode of The View, co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin sparred over whether racism and misogyny in the U.S. played a role in President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
“As a country, it’s very difficult for people to believe that racism and misogyny, they’re just alive and well. I think that we don’t want to think that about ourselves, our neighbors, our friends, but it’s – my lived experience tells me that it does still exist, even if your lived experience doesn’t tell that it exists and, you know, the facts support that,” Hostin began, while showing a graph that suggested “a clear racial divide” in who voted for Trump as opposed to who voted for Harris.
Hostin, who has been critical of voters backing the president-elect, has also implied that the Latino community’s support for Trump stemmed from misogyny and sexism.
“It’s very clear. It’s not only clear by race, but it’s also clear by education, and so the notion somehow that that is not true – this is by education. Those who attended a college voted for her at a higher degree than those that didn’t,” Hostin added. “I’ve said that before, and there was so much backlash because I think it’s an uncomfortable, inconvenient truth about this country.”
Griffin contended that voters didn’t support Trump out of racism or misogyny but rather out of a desire for a better quality of life and the ability to provide for their families.
“Why did Black people vote for her? Black people are one of the poorest demographics in this country, they voted for Kamala Harris,” Hostin said.
“If you think the vast majority of this country voted because of racism and misogyny, you’re missing it,” Griffin responded. “A lot of my family doesn’t have college degrees.”
“The stats are the stats,” Hostin retorted.
“It doesn’t say, ‘I’m White, I voted for Trump because of racism,'” Griffin said before Hostin jumped in, “you can’t dissect the two.”
“Yes, you can!” Griffin said. “There’s a lot more to this country.”
Sara Haines acknowledged that Hostin’s argument was valid but pointed out it wasn’t the sole reason for Trump’s victory. Hostin clarified that she wasn’t suggesting it was the only factor.
“The backlash is when people hang their hat on that being the only reason, any criticism of Vice President Harris must be because she’s a woman or she’s Black. I voted for Hillary Clinton, not because she was a woman, she was the most qualified. I voted for Vice President Kamala Harris because more of my values fell in line with what she stood for. So all of that can be true,” Haines said.
The co-hosts were addressing comments by comedian Bill Maher, who criticized the Democratic Party on his show Friday following Harris’s defeat to Trump.
“What a shocker that the people who see everything through the lens of race and sex see their election loss as a result of racism and sexism. Yes, if only we weren’t so irredeemably unenlightened, we would have elected a Black president by now. Oh what, we did?” Maher said. “And sexism? Hillary got 3 million more votes than Trump… Democrats run for office as if the voters don’t live here, as if they don’t go to the grocery store and Starbucks and the office, but they do. They live here, and they actually see women and people of color, and it doesn’t look like some patriarchal racist nightmare.”
Co-host Ana Navarro replied right to Maher.
“I would say to Bill Maher, who I like, whose show I have been on several times, that maybe, just maybe, when you live life as a woman and as a woman of color, you feel it and you know it a little bit more than a White man does in America,” said. “He says that folks see everything through the lens of racism and sexism. Not everything, but if you’re not seeing racism and sexism in America, then you need to clean your lenses.”
