As former Michigan senate candidate Haley Stevens continues to face backlash for flipping her endorsement to the Republican candidate in the race, the hosts of “The View” found themselves split on Monday morning. While some of the women called it a shameful move born from a “bruised ego,” others considered it “brave.”
The short version is this: Stevens lost the Michigan Democratic primary for Senate to Abdul El-Sayed, but vowed to stand with her party and back him. But, over the weekend, she made a shocking move and instead openly endorsed the Republican candidate, Mike Rogers. According to reports, none of her staff knew it was coming, and many quit in response.
“I see it as a mix of this fracture between the moderate wing of the Democratic Party and the more DSA-aligned wing,” Alyssa Farah Griffin said. “I think Democrats need to figure it out on their own. But I also think we shouldn’t just praise independents, when it’s Liz Cheney breaks with Republicans because she thinks that’s the principled position. If this woman feels this is the principled position for her, she has every right to do that.”
Host Sara Haines took Farah Griffin’s sentiments even further, arguing that Stevens’ flip was actually a “brave” move to make.
“I don’t know why the immediate and automatic response was that this was betrayal somehow, because integrity is not just backing your principles when it supports your party,” Haines said. “The real test is if you can back them when it costs you something. And I keep hearing, ‘But Donald Trump is so dangerous,’ and that is absolutely true. But that can’t end every conversation we have about what we’re willing to accept on our own sides.”
She added: “You cannot loan your loyalty and support out to a party; they must earn it every single time. And that’s why I think this was actually a very brave thing for her to do.”
Meanwhile, hosts Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin called it a move made purely because of a “bruised ego.” Navarro noted that watching Stevens on TV in the last several days has been “painful and cringeworthy.”
“I know what it’s like to break with your party. I did it in 2016 for the first time when I voted for Hillary Clinton instead of voting for Donald Trump,” Navarro said. “I did it because Donald Trump was out there making fun of disabled people. Donald Trump was out there calling Latinos and immigrants bad hombres and rapists and criminals. Donald Trump was being accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment by multiple, multiple women.”
“So I could not bring myself to vote for him. But it was not because I wasn’t invited to the party,” she continued. “It was not because I felt slighted. It was not because my, you know, frail little ego felt injured because I was not part of the campaign.”
