“The View” hosts feuded Wednesday over whether MAGA defectors like former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene should be embraced now that they have turned against President Donald Trump.
Co-host Joy Behar said both sides of the political aisle needed reconciliation, saying, “They both have major issues. They recognize things they’ve said in the past about each other that are horrendous, on both sides actually, but it seems to me that they are seeing the emergency we’re in right now with Trump and the White House.”
“I always will welcome — you’ve seen the light, come right into my tent,” Behar said. “There’s a lot of room for the never-Trumpers and the non-Trumpers. Maybe that’s what it’s going to be now.”
Fellow co-host Sara Haines blasted the idea, saying that embracing people on the right would be unwise if they still hold ideological opinions and associations she finds problematic.
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“So, these details matter,” Haines said. “Just because she agrees, ‘Oh, I don’t like Trump,’ I’m not like, ‘Great, welcome aboard.’ You’ve got to look at the character of the people you’re speaking of.”
“So what should we do? Reject her altogether?” Behar asked.
“Yes,” co-host Sunny Hostin said. “We should reject her altogether. I’m sorry, Joy.”
As the debate and crosstalk continued, Hostin grilled Behar, asking, “Why are you so welcoming, Joy?”
“I don’t hold grudges,” Behar said. “If they want to come over to my side, I’m taking them. [Greene] speaks to the MAGA base.”
“The View” has had Greene on the program twice in the last six months. In November, while still in Congress, Greene surprised the co-hosts by praising them for their civility.
In January, immediately after leaving Congress over differences with the Trump administration, Greene rejected pleas from the liberal co-hosts for her to become a Democrat.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., suggested Sunday on “Pod Save America” that Democrats should act with grace toward former Trump supporters who have broken with him on key issues after host Tommy Vietor played a viral clip of Greene in a recent interview urging the American people to “open their eyes” and realize that Trump is “not the same man that we supported” a decade ago.
Omar, who traded barbs with the Georgia Republican for years, mentioned that she praised Greene on the House floor before her departure for condemning the war in Gaza.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg sparked “The View” discussion by playing clips from both interviews and saying, “Really, the question is, can voters on both sides of the aisle move past this insanity and do something about what we’re seeing? Can people — can people say, ‘Yes, we disagree on many things, but we agree on this, that this cannot continue. This house cannot stand.’
“And that’s the key,” Goldberg added, arguing that what Greene identifies as politically or plans to do does not matter as much as what she tells her fellow conservatives that the Trump presidency they got is not the one they envisioned.
“Correct, she needs to do that,” Hostin said. “But in terms of welcoming her with open arms like Joy wants to do and give her a big bear hug, I’m not going to do that.”
Hostin blasted Americans who voted for Trump three times, claiming they turned the country into a mess.
“That’s why we need someone like her,” Behar argued.
“You need her, but you don’t need to welcome her. I’m sorry, it is unforgivable,” Hostin insisted, eventually being told by Goldberg to calm down.
Greene did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene is a quitter who is pathetically trying to stay relevant by going on liberal media shows to bash President Trump,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital.
“Unfortunately, Trump Derangement Syndrome has rotted former Congresswoman Greene’s peanut-sized brain.”
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Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed with Behar on trying to find common ground on key issues with people of otherwise opposing viewpoints. She went on to note how there have been Democrats who have bluntly said they don’t need to win Republican votes, only to find they were electorally defeated.
“You have to be willing to grow your coalition with people who got duped, who thought the economy was going to be stronger, thought the border was going to be secure, but it was only going to be the bad guys that were taken out, and you’ve got to welcome them in,” she said.
Goldberg argued that people like Greene have a unique power to persuade her fellow conservatives to oppose the Trump administration because she voted lockstep with him on the vast majority of issues in the past.
“It’s not a bear hug,” she said. “It’s like, ‘OK, finally, I’m glad you saw the light. Go and tell it on the mountain.’”
