‘Don’t Make Me Shut This Bad Boy Down!’ Whoopi Goldberg Scrambles to Get Control — As Tense Fight on The View Goes From Bad to Worse
Whoopi Goldberg scrambled to get control of The View on Wednesday after a tense school choice debate between co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin, which they launched right back into after a commercial break.
Goldberg brought The View back from break after Hostin and Griffin fought over the benefits and drawbacks to school voucher programs, something President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, is a believer in. The battle between Hostin and Griffin went right up to when they cut to commercial and Goldberg tried steadying the waters, warning her co-hosts that “something is in the air.”
“We’re all here at the table and we’re having a conversation and we’re going to go back to it, but before we do, I just want to say this is the beauty of people who have different opinions and sometimes it’s messy. Sometimes we’re messy. And I don’t know if you noticed that when I came out this morning, I had trouble trying to figure out — because there was nothing in the [teleprompter]. There’s something in the air, so just know something is chewing on us,” Goldberg said.
Joy Behar then jumped in to declare they were all “miserable,” “uptight,” and “crazy” right now because “Trumpism” is in the air following his win over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Goldberg then transitioned back into the school voucher debate only for Hostin and Griffin to launch into an argument again, with Hostin arguing school vouchers lead to some schools being less serviced and resourced while Griffin argued vouchers give families more choices and kids a better potential at a good education from a better school.
“There is zero statistical significance that voucher programs improve overall student success, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Research has shown that students who use those programs to leave a public school and attend a private school do worse academically,” Hostin said, adding that McMahon is getting her position because she’s a loyal Trump supporter and donor.
Griffin pushed back on Hostin, saying she’s seen results of voucher programs up close.
“I worked on the DC Opportunity scholarship program in Congress. That program alone, which is a charter school system, experienced a 21% increase in graduation rates. There are conflicting statistics, but according to Morning Consult the majority of Americans support health savings account vouchers and the taxpayer money following the students,” she said.
By taking choice out of the equation, students are forced to attend schools that are “falling behind,” she argued.
“It’s simply a parent should make the best choice for their student, but I also think there are schools that are falling behind, it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve education but I don’t think students should be victims of a falling behind at school. Their life is at stake,” Griffin said.
“But you went to a good school!” Hostin shot back. “I wasn’t in a good school district, that’s the inequity.”
“But where did you go to school?” Griffin asked.
“I had to start school in the South Bronx projects,” Hostin said.
“But didn’t you get to go to a private school?” Griffin asked.
The two then launched right back into tense crosstalk and Goldberg grew frustrated as she couldn’t get a word in.
“Don’t make me shut this bad boy down again!” she said. “People make the decisions they can make about what they can do. The problem with the school system is we allow failing schools because we don’t bolster them. We don’t pay teachers. We don’t take care of the students that need to be taken care of. I also — I’ve been in both. I’ve been in charter schools. I’ve been in public schools. I’ve been in private schools. People make the decisions they make. What I want to make sure of is that she doesn’t touch things and get rid of things.”
Watch above via ABC.
