The View Hosts Take Turns Schooling Lindsey Granger on Abortion and Political 'Incivility'

It was a no good, very bad morning for Lindsey Granger, who clashed with The View hosts at every possible turn. During Hot Topics about SCOTUS' impending Roe v. Wade decision and Dave Chappelle being tackled onstage while performing at the Hollywood Bowl, Granger repeatedly cut into the discussion with conservative talking points, giving the co-hosts no choice but to shut her down — and shut her down they did.

The View kicked off with another discussion about the leaked draft indicating that the Supreme Court is poised to curtail abortion rights, but today, moderator Whoopi Goldberg centered the discussion around the political implications of the leak itself. "Who do you think benefits most from getting this out there now? Is it the left, is it the right, is it the middle?" she asked the panel.

Granger, this week's guest co-host, was first to chime in, but rather than address Whoopi's question, she pointed to President Biden's "messaging problem" and his failure to live up to his campaign promises. Over the course of a confusing two minutes, the Daily Blast Live host wound her way from Biden's Afghanistan pullout to the filibuster — which she falsely claimed that Biden could end with an executive order, a point she later had to walk back — and finally to abortion. "Biden is not willing to get rid of the filibuster. He made a statement yesterday saying, 'This is bad, but my hands are tied. This is bad, but I can't really do much,'" she said. "That's not true: he can do plenty! And so he's choosing not to do much."

"I'm asking you, can you answer my question?" interrupted Whoopi. "Can you answer the question first?"

Before Granger could continue, Sunny Hostin chimed in to say that she's "so much less concerned with who leaked this than what was in the leak," and she advocated for legislation to "codify a woman's rights to her own body." When Granger (and Sara Haines, it should be noted) insisted that Democrats don't have the votes to do so, especially with the filibuster still in place, Hostin said Biden should put pressure on Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who "are now saying that Kavanaugh and Gorsuch lied to them" in their confirmation hearings. "Let's get all our senators on board," she said. "Let's pressure them, and let's protect women's rights! That's the answer to this!"

With that, Hostin and Granger began to argue about whether legislation or voting is the most effective method for protecting abortion access. "You don't have the votes, so you need to use the filibuster!" said Granger. "We can get the votes!" replied Hostin.

The two continued to go back and forth until Whoopi stepped in to send The View to commercial, but the situation only deteriorated further in the next Hot Topic discussion. As the ladies discussed Dave Chappelle being attacked onstage by a fan at the Hollywood Bowl, Joy Behar suggested that Trump's rhetoric normalized violence against those with different viewpoints. "Okay, Joy, this is not a political thing, come on," said Granger. "I know you want to wrap it all into politics, but this is really about security."

"Why, it didn't happen before!" replied Behar, as Hostin noted that "Trump unleashed some incivility" over the course of his presidency.

"You don't notice that there's a certain amount of impulse control lacking in the population these days?" continued Behar. "Trump really, he made the pandemic into like a cold. He handled it so poorly."

After Haines offered a monologue about how the country has become "so reactive and [waits] to be offended by every single thing," Granger returned to her earlier spat with Behar. "Cancel culture really came from the left, though, so if that's the argument that Joy's trying to have..." she said, trailing off.

"I'm talking about a lack of impulse control in the society right now that was triggered by Trump!" fired back Behar, as Granger once again insisted the Chappelle incident was a "security issue."

They continued to talk over one another until Whoopi cut in, for the second time this morning. "People are just rude!" she said. "And we don't know about this kid, so we don't know. We don't know why he did what he did. So let's move on from the conversation."

For the second time this morning, Whoopi cut in to shut things down, but Behar got in the last word, saying, "Who stormed the Capitol? Remember that?" As the cameras pulled away, the ladies continued to glare at each other, their frosty stares lingering until the show's announcer previewed Minnie Driver's upcoming interview.

Granger will be at the table for two more days, so expect plenty of tension through Friday's show.

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