Alyssa Farah Griffin put on her prognosticator hat Wednesday morning as she warned The View's co-hosts that "a red wave is coming" ahead of the midterms. After Trump-backed candidate Russell Fry knocked off incumbent Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina in Tuesday's Republican primary, Griffin, a former Trump official herself, ruefully predicted that the Republican ticket will be dominated by "people who deny that the election was even won by Joe Biden."
As the co-hosts discussed the South Carolina primary, as well as other races that suggest Trump's hold over the GOP has strengthened since leaving office, Griffin lamented that candidates are claiming to be "real conservatives" solely based on their allegiance to Trump. "Here's what I would warn: the red wave is coming," said the guest co-host. "Republicans are going to win the midterms, short of something unforeseen that I cannot predict now."
"You don't know that!" interrupted Behar.
"All the polling is suggesting that," replied Griffin. "It's the high gas prices, inflation."
When Whoopi, an avowed poll-hater, said she should "wait and see what the people vote" for, Griffin clarified that she's speaking from her own perspective. "Exactly, it's up to the voters," she said. "I would just like to see principled Republicans who are not so beholden to Trump win."
POLITICAL PERIL FOR THOSE WHO DIDN’T BACK TRUMP? The co-hosts and guest co-host @Alyssafarah Griffin react to Tuesday's GOP primaries and discuss what issues are going to sway voters in November's mid-term elections. https://t.co/cgR1dUDtfS pic.twitter.com/oOtpQqUsR1
— The View (@TheView) June 15, 2022
A few minutes later, Sunny Hostin took aim at Griffin's argument about inflation and high gas prices, saying "there are solutions" that Biden and Democrats are pushing to address these issues, but Republicans have voted them down.
"Republicans at every single turn have been voting against those solutions so they can campaign on the problems that you are talking about!" she said. "They've been voting against it so that we can't solve those problems that are affecting everyday Americans. And I think that's disgusting on the part of your party!"
Griffin said she wanted to "push back" on the point, but Hostin was quicker to speak up. "You can push back all you want, but that's the truth!" said the co-host, earning a round of applause from the audience.
"As the Commander in Chief, the buck stops with him," said Griffin, after the audience's applause died down. "If he had gotten his Cares III, if we had gotten another COVID relief bill, inflation could have been higher right now. So I put this on the president."
"And I understand there are obstructionist Republicans, but at the end of the day, he ran for this," she continued. "And we are in a place — do not look at your retirement account right now, folks. I've got friends who are like, 'I'm only filling up my gas tank halfway because gas is so expensive.' We've got to solve this."
Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.
TOPICS: Alyssa Farah Griffin, ABC, The View, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, politics