‘The View’ Hosts All Think They Know Why Michelle Obama’s Snubbing Trump

Though the hosts of The View could agreed that former first lady Michelle Obama has no “obligation” to attend Donald Trump’s second inauguration on Monday, their theories about why she made her decision to skip it prompted a heated debate that left most of the hosts feeling “aggravated.”

The former first lady announced via a short statement from a spokesperson on Tuesday that she would not be at President Barack Obama’s side for Trump’s second swearing in. She did not offer a reason for her absence, however, prompting widespread speculation that spanned from her personal disgust with Trump to overheated divorce rumors.

Sunny Hostin immediately asserted Friday morning that Obama is “so right,” assuming the first lady made her decision in protest. Hostin said she was happy Obama seemed to be abandoning her famous saying, “When they go low, we go high.”

“I think she’s changed her tune,” Hostin said, “When they go low, you have to meet that energy and perhaps go even lower [and] become small like an ant and go to the earth’s crust,” she quipped.

Former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed that Obama isn’t “obligated to be there,” since as a spouse, “she served her time.” But she also argued that Michelle Obama and Nancy Pelosi, who also won’t be attending on Monday, “should be bigger than [that.]”

“[Pelosi] is a sitting lawmaker and while she’s not Speaker, she’s Speaker Emeritus,” Griffin explained, “I think it’s kind of signaling, almost, Democrats retreating when there is something powerful to showing up and saying we’re here we’re going to sit here listen to him take the oath of office.”

Joy Behar took issue with that stance, saying “This is not a normal inauguration. This is not a normal person. He’s a convicted felon. Why do they go as if this is a normal inauguration?” She then told Griffin directly, “Stop treating it like, look—It’s not a normal election.”

When Sara Haines popped in to say that the “normalization” of Trump happened when America voted. Behar snapped back, “The Germans voted also.”

Hostin vehemently agreed, at one point rolling a clip of Michelle Obama blasting Trump for his “limited narrow view of the world” that “made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard work and highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.” Hostin concluded, “when you see that, you understand why she wouldn’t go.”

Ana Navarro, for her part, defended both Michelle Obama and Pelosi, who also didn’t offer a reason for declining to attend.

“Michelle Obama is living her best life and I think she has learned to put herself first and put her mental health first,” like many others who have “checked out” post-election. As for Pelosi, Navarro said, “she’s on a walker, the inauguration is outdoors, [the weather’s] going to be in the teens.”

“How do you know that’s not the reason?” she wondered.