Alyssa Farah Griffin Defends Trump White House Past After Getting Grilled by Sunny Hostin on ‘The View’: “We All Make Mistakes”

Alyssa Farah Griffin is standing by her past as a Trump White House staffer, claiming she receives unfair backlash for her time working for the former president. Griffin, who guest co-hosted today’s episode of The View, fought back after clashing with co-host Sunny Hostin over her former role in the Department of Defense, where Griffin worked before joining the White House.

During a discussion about the ongoing Jan. 6 committee hearings, Griffin said she was “astounded” that there are “so few” people coming forward to contest Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen. “The elected officials in congress who know it wasn’t stolen aren’t saying anything. It’s this massive, uphill battle,” she said.

Hostin chimed in to “question” Griffin’s claims, calling her out by asking her, “I know there are people like yourself and others who are coming forward now, but wasn’t the first impeachment enough?” and adding, “Didn’t you see a lot going on?”

Griffin pushed back, clarifying that she was working in the Department of Defense during Trump’s first impeachment, where she was “working to get aid released to Ukraine” and had been “working actively against the Trump White House” by doing so.

When Hostin pointed out that Griffin stayed with the administration despite Trump’s first impeachment, Griffin replied, “I believe people of good faith should stay in public service,” before lamenting the lack of respect she receives because of her White House past.

“This is not directed at you,” she clarified to Hostin, before saying, “There are people who think that people like me … don’t deserve to have a voice because we worked for Donald Trump. I reject that. We are telling the truth now, we are telling it authentically, we are acknowledging what we did wrong … we all make mistakes.”

Her comments led Whoopi Goldberg to ask if Griffin has more sympathy for women in other political parties who are experiencing similar public backlash.

Acknowledging the “horrifying messages” women like AOC receive from right-wing commentators, Griffin said women “have a duty, regardless of political affiliation, to say, ‘knock that off.’ We get it way worse than men do. when we use our voices.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC. Watch the full conversation between Hostin and Griffin in the video above.