Michele Tafoya Gets Played Off and Booed in Second Disastrous View Appearance

The View has had a dozen guest co-hosts this season, but few were as chaotic as Michele Tafoya, a sideline reporter for Sunday Night Football. For the second day in a row, Tafoya derailed the discussion with her staunchly conservative takes, but this morning, things got so bad that she was played off by producers and booed by the audience in back-to-back segments. Yikes.

Tafoya's second day on The View began just as her first: with a discussion about politics. The co-hosts opened with a Hot Topics segment about the Virginia gubernatorial election, which saw Republican Glenn Youngkin defeat former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe by about two points. Sunny Hostin was first to note that 57% of white women voted for Youngkin, who campaigned hard against "CRT," or Critical Race Theory. "Democrats are not good with the messaging that CRT is fake," she said, kicking off a discussion about history education in schools.

"People were watching their kids online throughout the pandemic, and they heard a lot of this, and they recorded a lot of this," said Tafoya. "It may not be exactly what CRT is, but there was a lot of racialized teaching."

"You remember what happened during the pandemic," replied Whoopi Goldberg, in her best "I'm speaking to an idiot" voice. "I think George Floyd happened during the pandemic. And that's why people were talking about race! There was a whole bunch of stuff going on!"

When Tafoya responded that she "hate[s] to break it to you, with two young kids in school, but it's been going on since long before George Floyd," Goldberg reacted accordingly. "Well, I will tell you this, and I hate to break it to you," said the longtime moderator, as Joy Behar laughed loudly off-screen. "But most schools that I'm aware of have tried to teach the history of how this country has happened. And you cannot put it in a different name. You can't pretend we didn't go through this."

GOP SCORES BIG WINS IN VIRGINIA: Republican Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive running his first campaign for political office, will be the next governor of Virginia – the co-hosts and #MicheleTafoya discuss the outcome. https://t.co/WSfiU23UIA pic.twitter.com/00uyBlRH4M

— The View (@TheView) November 3, 2021

"No one is pretending that though!" yelled Tafoya, as Goldberg shot a look into the camera. As the guest co-host went on about her "second grade report on slavery" and the dangers of "whitewashing history" by removing Confederate statues, The View's pre-commercial music began playing, as if to suggest that even the show's producers were fed up with her.

Sadly, things didn't get any better after the commercial break, when Tafoya insisted that NFL players "are not forced to go into the NFL" and join the league well-aware of the risks (the discussion was part of a Hot Topic about Colin Kaepernick comparing the NFL draft to slave auctions in Colin in Black & White). "These guys enter willingly. They're the most well-cared-for people," she said. "Yes, they play a hard sport. And every one of them, Black, white, Latino, whoever is playing the sport will tell you how much they love it, and they're willing to do it. And they make a damn good living."

Tafoya's remark led to a debate with the rest of the co-hosts about Kaepernick. While Hostin insisted white owners in the league have "colluded" against Kaepernick to prevent him from playing in the NFL, the sportscaster insisted that the quarterback seemed to come out fine after he kneeled during the National Anthem. "He didn't lose everything. In fact, I would say he's gained a whole lot," said Tafoya. "He is now the leader of a movement, he's got a Netflix series, he's got Nike endorsements."

If Colin Kaepernick wants to get back on the field, joining a Black-owned team might be the only option.

Time for him and others to buy a team?#TheView pic.twitter.com/xHw2MohmJM

— The Chat (@LiveOnTheChat) November 3, 2021

After some more back and forth with Hostin and Goldberg, Tafoya spoke out on behalf of NFL ownership. "I just want to give the benefit of the doubt to some people that there are two sides to this story," she said. "I think all of us can agree that there is probably a lot to this story we still don't know."

Suffice it to say that the audience did not agree: Tafoya's comment was met with a loud series of groans and boos from off-camera. "That's The View, honey," said Behar, as her co-hosts exchanged knowing looks.

Michele Tafoya's two days as guest co-host are up, so she will not return to the table tomorrow. Instead, expect the week to end with Ana Navarro, who (hopefully) won't piss off Whoopi quite as much.

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