On ABC's "The View", co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin got into a disagreement over Vice President Kamala Harris' brief mask removal. Hostin called out Griffin for her critique on mask mandates saying, "You were part of the administration that politicized the virus!"
Tuesday's episode started with a discussion of the debate swirling around Harris' recent visit to Thomas Elementary School in Washington, DC, where she delivered a speech without a mask while students standing behind her had their faces covered. School administrators stated masks at the event were optional, but many students were masked up.
Children in schools across the country are still required to comply with masking mandates but on March 16, public schools in D.C. announced masks on school premises were optional and up to "individual decision." That didn't stop Republicans, however, from taking the opportunity to call out the vice president over social media. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted, "Kamala Harris: Rules for thee but not for me."
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On "The View", Griffin nodded to Nancy Pelosi's visit to a hair salon in 2020 as another example of "Covid theater." Joy Behar responded to the comment by backing up to the beginning of the pandemic with Trump and the Republican Party's refusal to listen to science.
"You can blame the Rose Garden or you can blame Nancy Pelosi, but she didn't start this war," said Behar.
Griffin responded to the comment by saying she had personally been an "outspoken Republican" on vaccination as well as boosters. She went on to say comments from Democrats at the beginning of the pandemic also politicized the virus.
Behar asked for an example to which Griffin responded, "It is a fact that Vice President Harris said. I'm not going to. Vice President Harris said, in the VP debate…"
Hostin interrupted her co-host saying, "You were part of the administration that politicized the virus!"
Griffin said while Trump politicized the virus, "Vice President Kamala Harris, in the vice-presidential debate, said if Dr. Fauci says I should get it, I will, but I'm not getting a Trump vaccine. That's dangerous. That leads people…"
Griffin was interrupted again, this time by Behar who interjected to asking who had made that comment. Farah Griffin pointed to the Vice President.
Hostin called out Griffin saying, "That was waaay after this vaccine was politicized by your boss."
Griffin then said she took responsibility to which Hostin ended the exchange with a firm "Thank you."
Watch below, via ABC
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
