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Alyssa Farah-Griffin faced off against her co-host Sunny Hostin while discussing former Vice President Mike Pence’s presidential campaign on The View on Wednesday, June 7. While Sunny criticized Pence and poked holes in his accomplishments as VP, Alyssa clapped back and the two faced off before Whoopi Goldberg decided to go to a commercial break.
After discussing Pence’s initial campaign ad to place his bid in the Republican primary, Joy Behar asked how he plans to get the nomination, including going against former President Donald Trump. “Who is going to vote for him? You tell me. The MAGAs are not going to vote for him. The evangelicals are all-in for Trump. So, who’s left to vote for him?” she asked.
Alyssa worked as Pence’s press secretary from 2017 to 2019, before beginning to work for Trump. Her last position during his administration was as the White House Director of Strategic Communications until she left in December 2020. Despite working closely with Pence for years, Alyssa said she wanted to learn more about Pence’s campaign. “I’ll have more on Pence tomorrow because he’s doing a big town hall tonight,” she said. “I kind of need to hear more of what he’s angling. Based on that ad is so kind of generic.”
Sunny hopped in, and pointed out that it felt like her co-host was dodging the question. “What scares me, Alyssa, is you are incapable of defending a man that you worked for—,” she said, before Alyssa interrupted. “Why don’t you ask me a question?”
Sunny proceeded to explain the “several reasons. why she felt like Pence was the wrong candidate for president. “He had a terrible approval rating [as the Governor of Indiana], because of the way he treated the AIDS crisis. Awful. A lot of people died because of him.” she said. “A lot of people died because of how he handled the COVID crisis. He also was a parrot for Trump.”
In the midst of Sunny’s piece, Alyssa kept interjecting trying to get an opportunity to respond. “You just accused me of something. So why don’t you let me say something?” she said at one point. “Sunny likes to make it personal. Are you going to give me a chance to answer?” At one point, Alyssa said that not having a chance to speak went against The View’s principal. “This is not what this show is about. This is Barbara Walters’ legacy.”
As her co-hosts kept talking over each other, Whoopi proceeded to calm the table and say she was going to go to a commercial break. “I feel like I need to go to break right now,” she said. “I can’t hear anybody saying anything.”
After they returned from the break, Alyssa set out what she believes Pence’s strategy is, but admitted that she was “unclear if it’s going to work.” She said that he planned to try to win over the evangelical base, while speaking about agriculture, China, and border security, while not planning to win over a certain faction of Trump’s supporters. “Turn the page. It’s Trump without the Trump-ism,” she said.
Sunny proceeded to point out the lack of significant accomplishments for Pence during his time as VP. “What I’m saying about Pence was there have been people who have worked with him—so I won’t make it personal—that don’t seem to be able to stand up and say, ‘You should vote for this man, because he did A, B, C, and D.’ My point is: his biggest alleged accomplishment is the way he handled the coronavirus pandemic,” she said. “I think that he can never distinguish himself from the stench of the Trump administration.”
After Sunny’s mention, Alyssa once again pointed towards “Operation: Warp Speed,” which was the Trump administration’s effort to have a COVID vaccine developed during the pandemic. She credited Pence with the vaccine being made available.
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This story originally appeared on Hollywoodlife
