Alyssa Farah Griffin Walks a Fine Line on COVID: Both Trump and Democrats 'Politicized the Virus'

Alyssa Farah Griffin has largely avoided conflict with The View's panel over the past few months, but on Tuesday morning, she got into a brief tiff with Sunny Hostin during a discussion about COVID. When Griffin insisted that both Donald Trump, her former boss, and Democrats "politicized the virus," Hostin reminded her that she was "part of the administration" that led to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans and encouraged her to take responsibility for her role in the mishandling of the pandemic.

As she's done in her previous appearances, Griffin attempted to walk a fine line between criticizing Trump and pointing out moments where Democrats could have been better with their COVID messaging. "There's been COVID theater throughout this pandemic that folks are sick of," she said. "Whether it was Nancy Pelosi going to a hair salon in violation of COVID restrictions, whether it's — many of my friends attended the Gridiron dinner in DC. But I mean, it turned out to be a super-spreader."

When Hostin brought up the "Rose Garden super-spreader" tied to Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination, Griffin said that she believes the virus "was inside before that" October 2020 event.

"Well, let's go back a little further. Because the Republican Party, in my opinion, and Donald Trump poisoned the well from the beginning, refused to listen to the science," said Joy Behar. "And so a lot of people — maybe even in the millions — still have not gotten vaccinated. And that's where this all started. So you can blame the Rose Garden, or you can blame Nancy Pelosi, but she didn't start this war. They did!"

WILL AMERICANS REJECT REINSTATED MASK MANDATES? As Philadelphia just became the first major U.S. city to reinstate an indoor mask mandate and Vice Pres. Harris was criticized for being maskless at the celebration for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, #TheView panel weighs in. pic.twitter.com/XtiHw63AhZ

— The View (@TheView) April 12, 2022

"I have been a very outspoken Republican that everyone should get vaccinated, everyone should get boosted," replied Griffin. "But I will say this: there were things said by Democrats early on that politicized the virus." The guest co-host attempted to list off these moments, but Hostin interrupted, saying, "Whaaat? You were part of the administration that politicized the virus!"

"Oh, I understand, and I take responsibility," said Griffin. "You must!" replied Hostin.

"Donald Trump politicized the hell out of this virus," admitted Griffin, "But Vice President Kamala Harris, in the vice presidential debates, said, 'If Dr. Fauci says I should get it, I will. But I'm not getting a Trump vaccine.' That's dangerous!"

Hostin stated that the vice presidential debates were "waaay after the vaccine was politicized by your boss" before returning to the original topic of reinstated mask mandates. "The bottom line is — getting back to this discussion – I think that we relied on personal responsibility, and people were irresponsible, leading to the mandates," she said. "We want people to be better than they are ... We cannot necessarily rely on people to protect their fellow man. We know that that just doesn't work."

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.