Joy Behar hopes to 'actually influence people's thinking' with her criticism of the Trump administration

"The View" co-host Joy Behar said she felt an obligation to speak out about President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday and said she hoped to influence people's thinking during a "Behind the Table" discussion. 

Producer Brian Teta asked Behar, who has been with the show for 26 years, what she likes about doing the ABC talk show and why she's been on it for so long. 

"It's because of the freedom to speak my mind, that has always been the attraction," she responded, before talking about other parts of her career. "I like the people I work with, number one, I like everybody." 

"I also feel an obligation to speak about the administration that we’re in the midst of, and I feel like we’re in a privileged position to say certain things and that we, you know, we can actually influence people’s thinking sometimes, even if it’s a little bit, that we’re in a lot of trouble in this country right now, and that I like the idea that we can say stuff that people will listen to," she said.

Joy Behar attends a discussion of the View's "Behind the Table" podcast at 92NY on October 8, 2024, in New York City.  (Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

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Behar was also asked about the many political figures she's gotten to interview on the show and about why politicians come on the talk show. 

"We can show them the way they are in real life, the way they really are," Behar said. "I've met Hillary Clinton many times. She's different when she's running for office, and she's all scared to make a mistake. When she's herself, she's very funny. She should have come on ‘The View’ more, I think at that time. In fact, somebody screwed her up, somebody in her campaign said, ‘don’t go on,' and it was a big mistake."

Behar said Clinton was a grandma, wife and mother and was much more than just someone who ran for office. 

The co-hosts also talked about Sunny Hostin's viral question posed to former Vice President Kamala Harris last year during the 2024 campaign, as Teta joked that the liberal co-host had "single-handedly taken down the Democratic Party" when Harris' bungled answer went viral. 

Co-host Sunny Hostin speaks during ABC's "The View." (Screenshot/ABC News)

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Hostin defended her question about whether Harris would have acted differently at any point during President Joe Biden's first term, saying it was one Harris should have expected. Harris memorably said she couldn't think of anything she'd have done differently than the unpopular Biden, and the soundbite became fodder for the Trump campaign that Harris was more of the same.

"I knew it instantly when she answered it," Hostin said during the podcast conversation, when asked by Teta if she knew it would be a viral moment. "Which is why I asked the follow-up question, ‘is there one thing?’ Because I knew, I could see the soundbite and I knew what was going to happen, but I thought it was a really fair question and I thought it was a question that she would expect." 

Biden appeared on the show in May for one of his first interviews since leaving the White House. 

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The former president blamed racism and sexism for Harris' loss during the conversation.

"I wasn’t surprised, not because I didn’t think the vice president was the most qualified person to be president," Biden said. "She is. She’s qualified to be President of the United States of America. I was surprised because they went the route of, the sexist route, the whole route. I mean, this is a woman, she’s this, she’s that. I mean, I’ve never seen quite as successful and a consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman couldn’t lead the country, and a woman of mixed race."

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