In a new interview, The View co-host Sunny Hostin affirmed that the legendary panel show does need a voice that differs from its mostly left-leaning group.
Hostin told The Cut in a wide-ranging interview, “right now, we still do need a really conservative voice.” Some excerpts from the piece were shared by People Magazine.
“I also believe it’s really important to not have someone on the panel who spreads misinformation, who adheres to the big lies, who is an anti-vaxxer because I think that’s dangerous,” Hostin added.
The lone conservative on the panel, Meghan McCain, left the show in July after four years of contentious appearances and clashes with her fellow co-hosts. The daughter of Republican Senator John McCain has since published a memoir in which she talks about her tenure on the show.
As previously reported, McCain wrote in the book, Bad Republican, “I’m not going to dish on every piece of drama that I witnessed. I had a lot of good memories on the show, and it was a privilege to be part of such an iconic piece of TV history. And yes, I know that most jobs in TV are stressful, being in a pressure-cooker environment, and that’s to be expected.”
McCain claimed the show “breeds drama,” and “brings out the worst in people.”
Hostin noted that she thinks McCain feels “that people did not like her or treated her a certain way because of her opinions.”
“I certainly don’t share any of her opinions … at all … about anything,” said Hostin, “but I don’t feel that way about her. I can’t claim to understand her because I think she’s very complicated. Her experience is her experience.”
As far as the next conservative to sit at the round table, “We need someone that will commit [to independent and/or conservative outlooks] and we don’t have that voice. And we need someone that’s not duplicative of anyone else on the panel,” Hostin noted.
After McCain’s departure, the panel show enlisted several conservative guest hosts to fill her seat, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Carly Florina, and McCain’s mother—Cindy McCain.
Additional guest hosts were brought in from the left as well, including S.E. Cupp and Eboni K. Williams.
The View is currently in its 25th season. The show was created by news legend Barbara Walters as an opportunity to showcase a multi-generational panel of women sharing their views on a variety of subjects, including sociopolitical and entertainment news.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg, who has been on the show since 2007, recently signed on to remain for another four years. She noted that Walters personally offered her a job on the show after a joke she told about then-President George Bush backfired and waylaid her career.
“Lucky for me,” Goldberg asserted, “Barbara Walters offered me a job and said, ‘Hey, would you like to do this?’ And I was like, ‘You know, I’m not in favor of the general public.’ She said, ‘You’ll be perfect.’”
This article features additional reporting from theGrio’s Jared Alexander.
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