'The View's Joy Behar Once Interrupted a Vicious On-Air Fight Between Alyssa Griffin and Sunny Hostin

While Alyssa Farrah Griffin and Sunny Hostin were having a vicious on-air fight, anchor Joy Behar suddenly jumped into the commercial and interrupted their argument. The new topic for this particularly heated episode was former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and the parent rights movement, as reported by The Sun.

Sunny argued that Haley is a supporter of parents' rights, which she believes offers "the right to certain parents to teach their kids what they want their kids taught." However, she added that it could strip away her right to teach her kids what she wanted them to learn. 

Sunny, who is 54, goes on to say, "And I want my kids to learn about their history. And I think all kids should learn about the history of this country regardless of whether or not it makes you feel uncomfortable because the past will become prologue if you don't know your history." When pressed further, Sunny admitted that Haley had met with Moms for Liberty, a group "found by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an extremist organization."

Alyssa then went on to say that educational freedom and parental choice are two of the most pressing problems in the US today. She said, "Our kids lost a year of education during Covid we have done nothing to get them up to speed. [Haley] is promoting education freedom, choice in school, and finding what's best for your student. I think that that's hugely important."

Sunny shot back, saying, "Do you know why that's a problem? Because you take money away from the public schools—". Then Alyssa interrupted her, saying, "Didn't you go to private school?". To this, Sunny said, "I went to private school. I had the privilege of going to private school—" Again Alyssa disrupted, "But then why shouldn't all students have that access?". The moment Joy saw the heat between the co-hosts rising, she interrupted and said, "We're going to have to go. We have to go. We can continue when we come back." She further added, "We'll be right back," to which Alyssa seemed a little irritated

Proponents of the "parents' rights" movement often cite the "trial of the century" in 1925, in which a Tennessee biology teacher was found guilty of breaking the law by teaching evolution to his students. Throughout the next decades, the word has been used often, most notably in conflicts involving desegregation, the Red Scare, sex education, and homeschooling. The current movement developed in reaction to the turbulence caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in a surge of political activism by parents who felt overwhelmed and abandoned as a result of prolonged school lockdowns.

In fact, Florida, Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah are just a few of the states where campaigns have resulted in the enactment of new legislation restricting the number of books that may be used in classrooms and libraries.

The rapid increase in the number of states banning certain books might indicate that their implementation is widely supported. However, more than 70% of Americans, including Democrats and Republicans, are opposed to these prohibitions, according to polls; a Harris poll from 2022 found that just 12% of respondents approve of banning books on "divisive topics."

Editor's note: This article was originally published on September 11, 2023. It has since been updated.