The hosts of ABC’s The View struggled on Monday’s show, between praising Joe Biden for flip-flopping on the Hyde Amendment last week, to expressing frustration that he wasn’t with the radical left to begin with.
After pressure from the left, the former Vice President and current 2020 candidate came out this past week to say he now was against the amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion, after being in favor of it for the past forty years. Meghan McCain was the only critic of Biden’s flip- flopping.
Co-host Ana Navarro began by recounting Biden’s recent gaffes, including plagiarism. Adding this abortion policy reversal to the list of mistakes, she urged the Democrat to “get it together.”
“He does have to get it together,” fellow co-host Sunny Hostin agreed. She sympathized with Biden as a fellow liberal Catholic who doesn’t want his faith “to be part of his politics.” But she hit him from the left for not being with “women of color” to begin with:
It just seems to me when you have women of color and black women that make presidents and you realize that the Hyde amendment affects predominantly women of color and African Americans and for him to sort of come out and not recognize that immediately, I don't know if you can even call that clumsy... He has to understand his constituency. I think that's going to be very problematic for him actually.
McCain pointed out that he was alienating pro-life Republicans like her that might’ve voted for him, and that there are plenty of progressives in the Democrat party to begin with.
I think flip flopping on something like this -- I actually was surprised by it because he's filling the moderate compromise lane as the candidate and you're not going to out progressive Progressives. If Democrats want a Progressive they'll go with Elizabeth Warren or Cory Booker, or someone who’s so further to the left. He's alienating the lane as I see as the easiest way to beat President Trump and you're alienating a lot of moderates.
But Navarro defended Biden, saying he was influenced by his black female adviser, who taught him how the Hyde Amendment “affects poor women and women of color.” Navarro said that it was “okay to evolve” when you learn the “facts” of abortion:
“Part of me is disappointed by the way he's handled it. But part of me also thinks it's okay to evolve if you learn more facts, if it's a genuine evolution,” she argued.
McCain took issue with her co-hosts’ argument, but Whoopi cut her off. After coming back from break, the other hosts took turns elaborating on their positions but McCain wasn’t given time to respond. After she complained, Whoopi scolded her saying she had given everyone a chance to talk, which is true, but she gave Hostin and Navarro two segments to speak and McCain only one.
