The View star, ex-White House staffer reveals she first wanted to resign after trying to fix Trump
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The View star Alyssa Farah Griffin revealed that she tried to fix Donald Trump from the inside when she worked for the former president as a communications director throughout 2020.
As the panel discussed Trump's Monday evening interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, cohost Griffin — who worked for Mike Pence from 2017-2019 before joining Trump's team in 2020 — revealed the moment she first realized she wanted to leave the White House staff.
"I don't know if it's naive or maybe it was hubris at the time — it's like, one or the other, maybe a weird mix of both. You thought you could make him better, you could convince him of what's right and what's wrong," the 34-year-old said after longtime cohost Joy Behar inquired about her decision to join the administration of such a controversial political figure like Trump. "George Floyd, after his murder and the social justice protests that summer, I was trying to get him to walk back a statement he made about saying 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts.' I was like, 'Surely that's not what you mean. No one thinks we should be shooting people in the public square,' and he essentially said no, that's what I mean, we're not walking it back. That was the moment where I was like, 'Oh, this is not a fixable individual.' That was the first time I almost resigned."
EW has reached out to Trump's team for comment.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Drew Angerer/Getty Images Alyssa Farah Griffin; Donald Trump
Earlier in Tuesday's Hot Topics segment, cohost Sara Haines defended Griffin, who joined The View permanently in 2022, from pointed criticism Trump hurled at his former staffer during the Fox News interview.
"Alyssa, just to clear your name, your name was shouted out at one point," Haines said of her colleague, who has also taken criticism from fellow View stars over her involvement with Trump. "Let me just remind him that the second he started denying the election was when Alyssa left. It was a year and a half later with her view highly changed [that] she came to this show."
Trump criticized Griffin for allegedly flip-flopping on him after she resigned in late 2020, though she has long spoken out against him — and even urged him to call off his followers who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
"Something happens when people leave... I have this woman named Alyssa Farah, she said the greatest things long after she left," Trump alleged on Fox. "Then The View offered her a contract, but obviously only if she changed her views, and all of a sudden she can say negative things. Money gets offered to people and some people change."
WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPH ARCHIVES; Lou Rocco/ABC/Getty Alyssa Farah Griffin and Donald Trump.
Both on The View and as a political commentator on CNN, Griffin has spoken out against Trump, including earlier in June, while she discussed Chris Christie's presidential campaign.
"Chris Christie is an imperfect messenger telling a very important message. There's a lot I've disagreed with him on over the years. Listen, his unfavorables are sky high in the Republican party. I don't think there's a path for him to the nomination, but he's doing what people are unwilling to do, saying, I know this guy, I supported this guy, frankly, I supported him until the bitter end, but I'm telling you now: He's dangerous," Griffin — who federal prosecutors recently interviewed amid an investigation into Trump's conduct — said. "It's okay if you think he woke up too late, but what he's saying is true. I wish I could count myself among the people who's never made a mistake and never aligned with the wrong people and had to learn as life goes on, but what he's saying is powerful."
The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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