The View Returns to the Studio with a Lively Political Debate

After two weeks of remote shows and general blah-ness, The View finally returned to the studio Tuesday morning, and viewers immediately reaped the benefits as the co-hosts got into a lengthy debate about Biden's wins and losses during his first year in office. In what's starting to become something of a pattern, Sunny Hostin found herself alone at the table when she criticized Democrats' failure to pass voting rights legislation, particularly in the wake of the January 6 insurrection. Hostin's criticism of Biden earned her a sharp rebuke from Whoopi Goldberg, who repeatedly said that "there's nothing he could've done" to pass the bill, and then offered a bizarre monologue about Americans "want[ing] to be manipulated" by politicians. Table cross-talk, nonsense arguments... The View is back, baby!

The View's Tuesday morning discussion served as a continuation of last week's emphasis on voting rights, but the in-person nature of the debate gave it a new (and much-needed) sense of intensity. When Hostin said that Democrats failed to use the period immediately following January 6 to get voting rights legislation passed — "Instead of doing that, it was, 'Let's reach across the aisle to the very people that are trying to delegitimize your presidency,'" she said — Behar once again asked her why she's "blaming the administration for that" instead of Sen. Joe Manchin or Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

"It was a terrible, I think, strategic mistake," Hostin answered, after the commercial break. "When we had that momentum, when everyone was looking at those January 6 videos and people were outraged at the attack on our democracy, why didn't our administration, why didn't the Democratic administration say something like, 'Our democracy is being attacked. Let's strengthen our voting rights bills.'"

Behar once again asked if Hostin believes "it would have worked with Sinema and Manchin" and the GOP, prompting some cross-talk, but it was Whoopi's voice that rose above the fray. "There's nothing he could've done! He couldn't make a sweeping statement," she said of Biden. "This is part of the big plan to control what happens in America, I believe. You take those voting rights away, people are going to be so angry, but they'll be nothing they can do about it because we're in charge. Next thing comes, the women, we're going to take your rights away, just like we've taken X, Y, and Z, because there will be nothing you can do."

"This country seemingly, or many people in it, seemingly want to be manipulated," continued Whoopi, as Behar chimed in that she thought Whoopi was going to say many people want "to destroy" the country. "Well, I don't know if they realize that it will be destructive," replied the EGOT winner.

The discussion continued to wind around the table, with Sara Haines repeating that Democrats don't have "the numbers" to effect change, and Behar prognosticating that Republicans assuming control of Congress will doom the nation. Finally, the debate made its way back to Whoopi, who hit viewers with an argument that seemed to run contrary to her earlier remarks. "There is this idea that we're here, once again, living off a country where we don't bring anything to it," she said. "And it's the same whenever those groups get together, and they start agitating like beetles. You just hear their legs going. This is happening. It's happening. And all you women sitting out there, if you thought the abortion fight was nasty, just wait! Just wait. All of y'all think this is not going to happen — it's happening."

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