On Tuesday, there were two former Trump administration officials on “The View.” They couldn’t have been more different.
One was former presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway, who was promoting her new book. She’s never apologized for her role in the administration or for running Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The other was Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former director of strategic communications in the Trump White House who has prostrated herself in front of the mainstream media in sackcloth and ashes — beginning on Jan. 8, 2021, when she used a CNN interview to say then-President Donald Trump should resign in the wake of the Capitol incursion.
Griffin has now been rehabilitated suitably enough to appear as an analyst on CNN and a co-host on “The View,” including filling in for co-host Whoopi Goldberg while she took a break earlier this year.
She was there when Conway visited on Tuesday and, as the kids like to say, you should have gotten your popcorn ready.
(This is hardly the first time “The View” has brought on pseudo-conservatives who have mostly renounced their views to act as “counterbalances” to the likes of Whoopi and Joy Behar. They don’t really, as you’re about to see. This shouldn’t be a surprise, however — and we here at The Western Journal chronicle and analyze the messages coming out of the mainstream media, including “The View,” all from a Christian, conservative perspective. If you support our mission, please consider subscribing.)
The showdown began after Griffin began talking about her break with the president in the month leading up to Jan. 6, 2021.
“I broke with the president ahead of January 6 when the big lie started being shared. I spoke out about January 6 when I saw a violent mob assault the Capitol,” she said.
Griffin went on for some time before Conway interrupted: “Is there a question in here?” she asked.
Do you support Kellyanne Conway?
“How do you still defend him, do you still think he could be a good president after he tried to overturn our democracy?” Griffin asked.
Conway noted she’d left several months before Griffin did; “I think you stayed a whole month after the election,” she said.
She added she hadn’t seen Griffin since she had “changed.”
“That’s not fair!” “That’s such a cheap shot!” Kellyanne Conway and Alyssa Farah Griffin clash on #TheView. pic.twitter.com/22qdaYmTnj
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) May 24, 2022
“I didn’t change, just to be clear I didn’t change,” Griffin shot back. “I swore an oath to the Constitution, not to Donald Trump.”
“As we all did,” Conway responded.
“But I appreciate that, I think there was a lot wrong with the 2020 campaign and I think in addition to that, afterwards. Your former boss, Mark Meadows, who was a terrible chief of staff, the man did not match the moment for a global pandemic or an election campaign,” Conway said.
“Neither did Donald Trump,” Griffin interrupted.
Conway disagreed, pointing to the fact Meadows’ response to the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 “did not match the moment.”
“But do you think that Donald Trump matched the moment?” Griffin asked.
Conway pivoted to what she was doing during the incursion.
“I was on ABC live on January 6. With George Stephanopoulos,” she said.
“And I said, people have to get out of the Capitol, what are you doing there? Why have you breached the Capitol?”
“But you’re still supporting Donald Trump now,” Griffin said.
Conway then noted the felicitous timing of Griffin’s choice to defect:
“Alyssa, if you’re saying that somehow you think we’re supposed to think that you’ve seen the light and not just seen your name in lights, that’s not fair,” she said.
“That’s such a cheap shot,” Griffin replied, with the defensiveness common to turncoats throughout time. “You’re not answering the question.”
As the two began talking over each other, discussing the fact Conway hadn’t ruled out supporting Trump for a second term, Goldberg — of all people — was left to be the voice of reason and told the two they needed to quit squabbling or they’d end the segment.
Here’s the full video:
Well, that’s certainly one way to make it clear who stood their ground.
If Griffin’s convictions are sincere, far be it from me to cast aspersions on them. However, she seems to have come to the conclusion she didn’t want to be associated with former President Trump just before he left office with a bit of baggage in the mainstream media — which, of course, is the easiest place to land a job, so long as outlets like “The View” don’t perceive you as radioactive.
After all, not a lot of people outside of politics knew who Griffin was before the past few months — and most still don’t — whereas Conway is both engaging and rightfully famous. There’s a reason why one replaced Whoopi while she was out and the other didn’t, and one suspects it’s not because of Griffin’s name and screen presence.
When Conway pointed that out, though, “The View” quickly decided they wanted to go to commercial posthaste if Conway didn’t stop. What a surprise.
