Alyssa Farah Griffin Blasts Fox News for 'Helping Putin Get Away with Criminal Acts'

This morning, Alyssa Farah Griffin left no doubt that she's the frontrunner to fill Meghan McCain's seat on The View when she ripped Fox News' Tucker Carlson for spewing Russian propaganda and misinformation. In a fiery monologue, the former Trump official accused Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard, who has also espoused Russian-backed conspiracies, of helping to "create a pretext" for Putin to commit war crimes against Ukrainians. "We've all been watching in horror as these people are being killed, mothers in maternity wings," said Griffin. "Can you imagine taking the position of, 'Eh, Putin, not so bad of a guy?'"

As the first guest co-host to return for a third tryout, Griffin clearly felt emboldened to speak up early in The View's discussion about Carlson and Gabbard. While Carlson found himself in hot water after a leaked Kremlin memo told Russian state media outlets that it is "essential" to include clips of the Fox News host's commentary in their broadcasts, Gabbard has become a target of Sen. Mitt Romney, who accused her or "parroting false Russian propaganda" with her remarks about U.S.-funded biological labs in Ukraine.

"I think Mitt Romney's absolutely right," said Griffin. "The Russians are spreading propaganda to try and create a pretext for potentially using chemical weapons against the Ukrainians. So what they're parroting — what Tucker Carlson parrots every night on Fox News, what Tulsi Gabbard is spreading — is actually helping Putin get away with criminal acts against innocent Ukrainian civilians. It's horrifying ... It's just bizarre. It's un-American."

When Joy Behar asked "how [Carlson] gets away with that," Farah said it's all about ratings. "He's the most-watched man in cable news," she replied. "It's actually really scary."

RUSSIA USING TUCKER CARLSON IN PROPAGANDA? After a leaked Kremlin war memo reportedly instructed Russian state media to play Tucker Carlson clips and Tulsi Gabbard is being accused of spreading Russian false flag propaganda, #TheView panel reacts. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/yzbQBrpmbT

— The View (@TheView) March 14, 2022

As the Ukraine discussion continued over the next two segments, the co-hosts weighed in on the GOP's close relationship with Putin, the dangers of Russian propaganda, and whether Biden should push for a no-fly zone over Ukraine. As she did last week, Sunny Hostin advocated for a no-fly zone, and she called bluff on Putin's claim that he would see it as an act of war, saying, "He's already in a war."

Behar and Whoopi Goldberg immediately pushed back. "Hold on! We don't want World War III!" said Behar. "This is a country that has nuclear weapons. We've been under the gun of nuclear weapons since I was a child hiding under the desk!"

"When does he stop, Joy?" replied Hostin. "You cannot screw around with a crazy person who has nukes!" fired back Behar, instead advocating for "get[ting] China involved," or pushing another country to "get in here" and help.

Griffin seemed to agree with Hostin, though she didn't specifically mention the no-fly zone. "This could be stopped quickly diplomatically," she said. "We need to cut him off from every international market, which the U.S. has done and the Europeans have done. But we need Switzerland, we need China, we need India to do it. Make him so isolated that he can't even sustain this mission. But I'm with Sunny — how many people can just die mercilessly at his hands before we, as the greatest world power, say, 'We're willing to do something to save those lives.'"

Behar came out swinging, asking, "Are you willing to get into a nuclear war?!" but Griffin kept her cool. "Yesterday the Russians came within 10 miles of Poland," she said. "Poland's a NATO ally. So we would be invoking Article 5."

Griffin will be on The View for the rest of the week. At this point, the fifth seat is hers to lose, but anything could happen over the next four days — stay tuned!

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