'The View' hosts get into fiery clash over Dems 'not meeting the moment' during an 'existential crisis'

"The View" panelists argued over the fallout from Rep. Al Green, D-Texas being censured for his outburst during President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

Mar 8, 2025 - 05:55
'The View' hosts get into fiery clash over Dems 'not meeting the moment' during an 'existential crisis'

The co-hosts of ABC’s "The View" launched into a heated clash over news that 10 Democratic members of Congress voted to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, after he was thrown out of President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.

During Friday’s episode, the five "View" panelists argued over the fallout from Green being censured for his outburst. One of the women argued that the Democrats were right to vote to censure him, another expressed exasperation at the action, and the others declared Democratic support for the censure proves the party is failing to oppose Trump.

"They don’t know how to fight and be part of an oppositional party," co-host Sunny Hostin declared after co-host Joy Behar read aloud the names of the 10 Democratic lawmakers who voted to punish Green on Thursday. 

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The 10 Democrats who voted to censure Green were Reps. Ami Bera, D-Calif.; Ed Case, D-Hawaii; Jim Costa, D-Calif.; Laura Gillen, D-N.Y.; Jim Himes, D-Conn.; Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.; Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.; and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.

Hostin loudly declared that Green was right to heckle Trump until being removed from Trump’s address and that Democratic lawmakers should be following his example rather than joining the GOP in censuring him. 

"Representative Green gave them the example. The Democrats are not meeting the moment. It is very clear that Medicaid is on the table. It is very clear that Social Security is on the table. It is very clear that people will die. The Baby Boomers, the civil rights generation, they knew what they had to do. They were willing to fight and die for their rights."

"This generation of Congress, they are not meeting the moment. This is an existential crisis," the co-host added, suggesting that Trump’s agenda is a dire threat to the nation. 

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Griffin opposed Hostin’s point, stating, "There’s a lot of people who saw the outburst differently, including Democrats." 

She added that all the party’s protests that evening were half-baked and ineffective. 

"If you’re going to protest and be an opposition party, do it with intentionality and make sure it works. Holding up signs… Are they being advised by people who use, like, Windows 98? It’s the most outdated, inconsistent–" Griffin said before she was cut off.

Elsewhere, Griffin trashed the party’s talking point that Trump didn’t win by enough votes to have a "mandate," stating, "That is not the winning message you guys think that it is." 

Hostin shot back, "He doesn’t have a mandate."

Behar read Rep. Suozzi’s recent statement on that mandate to the panel, in which the lawmaker urged both parties to abide by high standards of behavior. Co-host Ana Navarro criticized the notion, bringing up Republicans’ alleged bad behavior.

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"The problem is, that this is not happening in a vacuum," she said, later adding, "I have a really hard time being lectured by Republicans who are trying to whitewash and rewrite history, because if you didn’t stand up against Donald Trump’s pardon of 1,500 insurrectionists who have violated the Capitol like no other time in history, then you don’t have the right to clutch your pearls and be all outraged."

Co-host Sara Haines blasted the whole spectacle, arguing it is keeping lawmakers on both sides from doing the jobs they were elected to do. 

"They have a job to do and what they keep doing is not doing their job. Censures are like a slap on the wrist and all they want to do is, ‘It was him, it was her, it was this.’ They fight against each other rather than work with one another. We send them there to make legislation, to move the ball forward."

"This is all pathetic," she concluded.