Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin Grill Alyssa Farah Griffin on Gun Regulation on ‘The View’: “What Does That Got to Do With Democrats?”

On today’s episode of The View, the ABC talk show welcomed back CNN political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was grilled by hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin almost immediately after the show began.

The episode kicked off with the  contentious topic of gun violence and regulation in the wake of yesterday’s shooting in New York City, and it was clear that the former White House Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant to the President in the Trump administration did not see eye to eye on the topic with her fellow hosts.

“I don’t understand why we can’t solve this problem,” Behar began. Additional guest host, entrepreneur and fashion designer Julia Haart, swiftly responded, “When you take away guns, you take away gun violence.” It was here that Griffin stepped in on the conversation.

“There is a growing trend of rising violent crime in cities,” she began before asserting that, “I’m a Conservative, I stand with our police.” She agreed that there are too many guns that are easily accessible on city streets before continuing to decry those who advocate for defunding the police. Then, she asked Hostin for her perspective on the matter, and the attorney and journalist came prepared.

“I think that the solve has been here for a long time, right? It’s common sense gun legislation. And it constantly fails because Republicans have blocked that legislation across the board.” She continued, “It’s not about funding, it’s about gun legislation.” Then, she whipped out the stats.

“There is higher gun violence in Republican-led states and cities. So it’s a misnomer to say, ‘the rise in gun violence is in Democrat-run cities.'” But Griffin was not to be outdone, and rebutted with some stats of her own.

“Violent crime in general, across the board, the top 10 cities with the high in violent crime are all led by Democrats.”

“A lot of those cities have very strict gun laws, like New York City, and yet we have crime in the city with guns. Does that mean that people are bringing guns in from other states?” Behar cut in to ask, to which Griffin replied that most of those are legally obtained guns.

“So what does that got to do with Democrats, then?” Behar shot back. Hostin piled on with more of those sweet, sweet stats she came ready with.

“Because the five states with the highest per-capita murder rate […] all lean Republican, all voted for Trump. And in fact, what’s interesting is this study found that murder rates in the 25 states Trump carried in 2020, 40% higher overall.”

Griffin tried to defend, citing those states’ high poverty as one of the biggest factor in leading to those stats and crime rates.

“Then what are Republicans doing about it? Not wanting health care?”

“The economy is suffering under President Biden,” Griffin shot back at Hostin. “It suffered a lot under your boss,” Hostin replied.

“That is true,” Griffin acknowledged, adding “We also had a global pandemic,” before returning to the matter at hand.

“This is where I, as a Conservative, believe that what’s right for New York is not right for Arkansas or Alabama,” adding that it makes more sense for those in rural to be armed than those in crowded cities. Hostin and Behar continued to prod at their Republican compatriot until she attempted to settle the debate with a compromise.

“These Americans have to balance our second amendment rights to arm ourselves, but to do so responsibly and safely so that we aren’t the country with the terrible legacy of having the most mass shootings.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC. Scroll up to watch a clip from today’s episode.

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