‘The View’ Hosts React to Trump-Harris Debate: ‘Elder Abuse’

Whoopi Goldberg and Alyssa Farah Griffin on the view
ABC

To the surprise of exactly no one, the hosts of The View had a lot to say about the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Wednesday (September 11) morning’s episode.

Whoopi Goldberg started the conversation off by calling the debate a “booty whooping” and saying she was “quite relieved” by the results of the debate. “Clearly, Vice President Harris kicked some butt. She called you-know-who out for kissing up to dictators, killing the immigration bill, having no healthcare plan, and spewing lies about post-birth abortion.” 

Then, after reviewing a particularly talked-about segment in which Trump claimed members of an immigrant community in Ohio are eating pet animals for fun, Joy Behar chimed in to joke that her own dog was afraid before adding, “She was so tough on him that was almost like elder abuse, like I was watching a woman kick the babooey out of a man.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who previously worked in Trump’s administration but has become a vocal critic of him, agreed that Harris “objectively won the night” and said that she predicted one thing that happened at the debate: “He melted down within the first few minutes. She laid traps for him, and he flopped right into them. On the issue he should’ve been strongest on, border security, he ended up talking about his rallies.” After running through some of the perceived mistakes Trump made during his appearance on the debate, Griffin added, “If you can’t get through a 90-minute debate, how can you get through four years?” 

For Sunny Hostin, Harris delivered on one of her hopes, performance-wise, as she explained, “I had said from the very beginning that I like the match-up of a prosecutor and felon, right? I like that. And what you saw was that— you saw Kamala Harris prosecuting a case.”

Goldberg went on to physically demonstrate the opening moments of the debate, when Harris approached Trump on his side of the stage to offer an introductory handshake and added, “And then she said her name correctly. And you’ll notice he didn’t say it at all.” Sara Haines also praised that first exchange as a “bold way to start the whole thing.”

Hostin then revealed why she took personal offense to the comments about pet-eating, saying, “When he was talking about Springfield, Ohio, he was talking about Haitian people in particular, and as the wife of a Haitian and as the mother of Haitian children, how dare you?”

Goldberg went on to conclude the segment by reviewing some of her other picks for highlights of the evening, saying, “She nailed him on [Project] 2025, she popped him in the head on abortion, she slapped the lips off him on the border.” 

“What you saw was preparation,” Hostin said in agreement.

Check out highlights of the debate discussion below.

The View, weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC