Key Points
The View cohosts collectively slammed the ongoing government shutdown.
Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, and Alyssa Farah Griffin criticized figures for sharing memes instead of fixing the problem.
“Everyone needs to just grow up and do their job,” Griffin said.
The View cohosts are waking up impassioned feelings as the government shuts down.
Thursday’s episode of the ABC talk show kicked off with a roundtable summit that saw all of the panelists taking officials to task for allowing an impasse to shut down the United States government, though Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, and former Donald Trump White House staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin voiced particularly pointed criticisms at those in power.
After California Gov. Gavin Newsom followed suit on the right-wing meme trend of placing mocking imagery over photos of politicians who don’t agree with them, Goldberg said that political figures should “quit trying to draw lines” that divide instead of working toward a solution.
“We don’t see the lines. We hear you talk about them. But, why are you doing this to the American people?” Goldberg, 69, asked. “Maybe the people are going to try to hold you to a different standard now.”
ABC
Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin on ‘The View’
Griffin, 36, admitted that she doesn’t “understand what’s happening” amid the government shutdown, as current political maneuvering is so baffling and unorthodox in her estimation.
“What I’ve heard from Democrats is the Republicans control everything, [Trump] has too much power, it’s an imperial presidency. But, they just gave him the only inch of power that they even had by shutting down Congress,” she said. “They gave him the only ounce of leverage they even had by being in session and being a voting member of Congress who could be subpoenaing things, who could be holding committee hearings.”
She added that she doesn’t know “how this possibly ends as a win for anyone,” and that she’d “remind people furloughed works, our troops, usually we pass a bill that keeps them getting paid during shutdowns, that’s not been passed as of when I last checked this morning. They’ll get backpay, but if you’re somebody who’s living close to paycheck to paycheck, that is not right.”
Griffin added a stern message to those in power, saying that, instead of sharing memes criticizing each other, “everyone needs to just grow up and do their job.”
Haines jumped in to observe that “the memes, it’s not like they’re mocking each other, although they’re directing it, they’re mocking the issue, which is people do live check to check and they’re sitting home not being able to get paid or go to work.” She added that “it makes a mockery of everything” in the process.
“This is an embarrassment to the country as they go back and forth, but at the end of the day, I don’t think Trump cares,” Haines continued. “This is always about a victory. He promised retribution, he promised he wanted to get back at people, the reason he’s punishing blue states is because this whole thing sets him up to go ahead and do that.”
Goldberg finished the segment by noting that “people keep bitching that the left isn’t doing anything,” and that “the bottom line is the left is doing what it can. This is the thing they felt they could do. You’ve got to tip your hat to them because they don’t have the majority, they don’t have enough to even fight.”
ABC
Sara Haines on ‘The View’
She then pointed to conservatives as she assessed, “Quite honestly, I’m sorry, this is on the right.”
When Entertainment Weekly contacted the White House for comment about remarks on The View and the government shutdown, we received an automatic email reply.
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“Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays,” the response noted. “We ask for your patience as our staff work to field your requests in a timely manner. As you await a response, please remember this could have been avoided if the Democrats voted for the clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government open. The press office also cannot accommodate waves requests or escorts at this time. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Later, a representative responded asking EW for a timeline for a response.
The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.
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