Joy Behar clashes with Alyssa Farah Griffin on “The View” over demonizing Donald Trump supporters: 'Come on, Alyssa'

Griffin, who once worked for Trump, also called it 'unpatriotic' when people call America a racist nation.

Joy Behar and Alyssa Farah Griffin got into a heated discussion about Donald Trump supporters on Friday's episode of The View.

The cohosts debated rhetoric surrounding bridging political divides ahead of the 2024 presidential election, with Griffin, 35, taking issue with Behar, 82, speaking about Trump supporters and other conservatives with critical language instead of taking a more welcoming approach to working out their differences.

"Let's be clear here, he's a total racist. He's not talking about Norway or Denmark or Sweden. Come on," Behar observed, after Trump on Thursday called America a "garbage can for the world" over immigration.

"It's such an unpatriotic thing to say this country is racist," Griffin replied, cutting in later to call out Behar for using inflammatory language when discussing Trump's supporters.

"If I can just say though, this is the problem. If we just demonize the other side and 74 million people, you don't win hearts and minds," the former White House communications employee said. "The way you defeat him in a cycle is, you need to bring more people into the fold. Yes, that's where I think the name-calling is actually not helping."

Behar turned to her colleague and directly addressed the sentiment. "Alyssa, come on, at this point, after everything he's said and done, you really think that these people are going to change their tune?" to which Griffin responded, "I think there are people changing in real time. I know voters who are not voting for him this time who did not in 2016 and 2020."

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The comedian then asked, "Well, where have their heads been all this time?" Griffin hit back at the assessment, asking, "But when you say that, don't you think that makes people want to double down on it?"

Sara Haines cut in, also urging Behar against using harsh language as a strategy.

"In your next breath, Joy, you say, 'Why haven't people gotten it?' We're not going to figure that out if we then say, 'Well, they've got their heads up their butt.' It's a numbers game," she said, with Griffin backing her up by telling Behar that "you win by addition, not subtraction."

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Behar ended the segment by praising the military service of men in her family, before looking into the camera and telling Trump, "Screw you!"

The exchange came days after Behar admitted that she was "having a breakdown" after years of criticizing Trump in the run-up to this year's election.

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.