Alyssa Farah Griffin: I'm excited and honored to join 'The View'
Alyssa Farah Griffin officially joins the ABC talk show as its co-host in the conservative seat.
"The View" formally announced on Thursday that Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House communications director during the Trump administration, and Ana Navarro will be new co-hosts of the show.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg said they wanted to honor former host Barbara Walters' vision for the show by representing different voices. Farah Griffin will appear daily, while Navarro will continue to host the show but not every day. ABC played a montage of Farah Griffin and Navarro's notable appearances; both are Republicans but are sharp Donald Trump critics.
"Barbara Walters had this vision for bringing women from totally different backgrounds, lived experiences, careers, to talk about the tough issues that frankly our elected officials often aren’t tackling, and we do that every day, and we’re having important conversations. I can’t say how much I’ve learned from all of you, and I hope to learn from all of you, and I will say this. The last couple of years have been a bit turbulent for me, you know, you saw it in the preview there," Farah Griffin said after the announcement, elaborating on her time in the Trump administration. "It’s going to get sporty sometimes, but I adore you women."
"It's going to get more than sporty," Sunny Hostin interjected.
Alyssa Farah Griffin offers criticism of the Biden administration on inflation during "The View." (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)
Farah Griffin was a loyal aide in the Trump White House, serving under Vice President Mike Pence and the Pentagon as well, but since leaving the administration in December 2020, she has assailed Trump as a threat to democracy and expressed regret at working for him. Critics on both sides of the aisle have suggested she's shifted her views to make herself more palatable to the media.
Navarro, a left-wing Republican who supports Democrats, was also named as an official co-host, but won't be appearing on the show full time for the foreseeable future. Navarro has frequently appeared as a guest host and contributor over the years, endearing herself to the audience as a staunch supporter of liberal policies.
"As you all know, most weeks I’m on a plane almost four times a week and I spent countless hours on planes, at airports, in hotels. Sometimes it gets lonely, but I also know it’s a huge, enormous, incomparable privilege to be part of a 25-year institution, and whether people like it or not, whether some people acknowledge it or not, it is the relevance and the importance and the platform that 'The View' represents, and I and we at this table have spent a lot of time, a lot of time talking about representation and saying representation matters," Navarro said, adding that it was an opportunity she had to grab with "both hands."
Farah Griffin has been a frequent guest host of "The View" this season as a conservative voice on the show. Lincoln Project adviser Tara Setmayer, former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham and Lindsey Granger also joined the "View" hosts throughout the season.
MSNBC'S TIFFANY CROSS SLAMS ABC FOR REPORTEDLY HIRING ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN TO CO-HOST ‘THE VIEW’
Ana Navarro slams Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on "The View." (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)
A source told Fox News Digital at the end of July that "a lot of people" wanted Navarro to be the new permanent host.
An official co-host spot has remained vacant since former conservative host Meghan McCain announced she was leaving the show in July 2021.
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Sunny Hostin asks Alyssa Farah Griffin why she stayed with the Trump administration on "The View." (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)
Behar appeared to take a shot at Farah Griffin and Grisham in June by criticizing "recovering addicts" that appear on "The View" to turn on Trump.
"These people who are now all, like, recovering addicts — recovering addicts in the Trump world that come on, even on this show. They come on this show, and they go on other shows and they're suddenly turning on Trump," she said.
During a July appearance on "The View," Farah Griffin rejected the notion that former officials like herself don't deserve a voice after serving the Trump administration.
"There are people who think that people like me, people like Stephanie Grisham, people like Olivia Troye, don't deserve to have a voice because we worked for Donald Trump. I reject that. We are telling the truth now, we are telling it authentically, we are acknowledging what we did wrong, and I am grateful to those women and I stand with them, I stand with Cassidy Hutchinson. You know what, we all make mistakes, but I am glad these women are using their voice," she said.