Joy Behar may have been nice to JD Vance during his appearance on “The View” this week, but that doesn’t mean she was charmed into becoming his “best friend,” as the Vice President later joked. In fact, on Friday morning, the ABC host snapped at her co-hosts for insisting she was charmed by him.
During a Thursday press briefing, Vance touted his negotiating skills in response to criticisms that he doesn’t have the experience to be handling the Iran deal, using “The View” as a prime example. He joked that Behar is “way tougher than the Iranians,” and yet she and him “are best friends now.”
“We were more difficult to deal with than the Iranian government?” host Sunny Hostin said in disbelief after watching the clip on Friday.
But eventually, she turned to Behar directly to ask her about their time with the VP.
“I want to know, why were you so — why were you so in love with JD Vance?” Hostin pressed.
“I wasn’t in love — look, I’m not in love with him, and I’m not in love with this administration,” Behar retorted. “You are watching me on this show.”
Hostin returned that Vance literally called her his “best friend,” but Ana Navarro defended Behar a bit, noting that Behar offered him a backhanded compliment when she told him he was “pretty good, for a Republican.” That said, Navarro did agree that Behar had fallen for a tactic.
“Listen, he came in strategically prepared to disarm us with niceness,” Navarro said. “He came in being affable, and laughing easily, and being very nice. I mean, it worked on you, didn’t work on me.”
“It didn’t work on me either,” Hostin added.
As Alyssa Farah Griffin tried to chime in, Behar took a beat before responding angrily.
“It did not work on me, Ana,” she said firmly.
When Hostin agreed and doubled down that it did, Behar pressed further, saying that she came up on “The View” under Barbara Walters, who taught hosts to be respectful of everyone that came to the show.
“It did not. I respect the office,” Behar insisted. “I’m a civilized human being, when someone comes on my show, then you treat them like a human being!”
“The View” airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC.
