Kathie Lee Gifford is speaking out to torch both Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar. She’s also slamming the “viciousness” she feels that they’ve brought to their ABC talk show The View. According to Gifford, that “viciousness” was not present when she would appear on the program years ago.
Gifford Speaks Out Against The View
Last week, Gifford sat down with Tomi Lahren on her “Tomi Lahren is Fearless” podcast. There, she opened up about how she really feels about the women of The View these days.
“I used to be able to go on The View and talk to Joy and Whoopi and a lot of the other people there,” recalled Gifford, 72. “Debbie Matenopoulos and I are still good pals.”
“And I never had a problem with anybody because they weren’t trying to, I don’t know, proselytize everything,” she continued. “I share my faith, but I don’t say, ‘You’re going to go to hell if you don’t —,’ I don’t do that. You know, I want people to have a little more heaven in their life than hell.”
Lahren, 33, was quick to agree, saying that The View, which premiered back in 1997, is “a much different show” these days. She added that “ABC in general is a much different network” than it was in the early 2000s.
“But you know what I mean then about the viciousness,” Gifford said in response. “That part has changed. And it’s sad. Everybody seems like they’re just miserable people now. I may make people miserable, just talking the way we’re talking, but nobody will ever confuse me for a miserable person. I have joy personified, the joy of the lord is your strength.”
The View Goes Downhill
When the late Barbara Walters created The View, she envisioned it as a show in which women with four or five different viewpoints could engage in healthy debates. These days, however, the five co-hosts all share basically all of the same opinion about virtually everything.
Indeed, Goldberg, Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin typically use their show to rant and rave against President Donald Trump, encouraging one another to hit him with the lowest blows possible.
Behar herself admitted back in 2022 that the show had changed since Trump took office.
“I think that this show really took a change when Trump got in, ’cause we used to have more laughs before he got into office,” Behar, now 83, said at the time.
“He’s good material for comedians, but I mean he became so scary as a leader, whatever he is, as somebody who is such a threat to democracy, that it became very important that we convey what we felt and thought and read about to the audience,” she continued. “And so it became a completely different show. But that’s what happens.”
Gifford Spreads Positivity And Faith
While the women of The View spread negativity, Gifford relishes in staying positive. Much of her focus in recent years has been on her strong faith in God.
“I’ve always had purpose in my life,” Gifford told Fox News last year. “I’ve been solid and just steadfast, I’ve tried to be a believer in Almighty God, and if I wake up every morning, that means — I’ve got a pulse. That means he has got a purpose for me and that’s what I try to do is listen to his voice. Figure out what that purpose is, and go about it holding his hand.”
In the end, it’s hard to disagree that most of us would far rather have Gifford’s positive, faith-based outlook on life than ever be as bitter as Goldberg and Behar. We applaud Gifford for having the guts to call each of them out for what they have done to The View as a television show.
God bless you, Kathie Lee Gifford!