The tense incident took place during a chat between Sunny Hostin, Ana Navarro, and guest co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin. Griffin, a right-leaning analyst who formerly served in the Trump administration, hit a nerve with Hostin while addressing her prior involvement with the Freedom Caucus, a right-leaning congressional group.
“I was working for members of the Freedom Caucus when the congressional shooting took place and it was bosses of mine who were targeted,” Griffin said, referring to the 2017 shooting in which a gunman opened fire during practice for a baseball game.
Griffin added, “I want to make sure that as we’re having these fundamental American conversations about what we want our country to be and who we should be, that we just make sure we’re keeping the temperature down [and] it doesn’t turn into harassment or intimidation.”
Hostin replied that the Freedom Caucus “sort of injected some of that right-wing extremism into our country’s politics,” but Griffin pushed back, insisting the organization has shifted from the group she once knew.
“I’ve talked about this extensively, especially the direction they’ve gone in the Trump years is not something I recognize or would have put my name to,” Griffin said.
Her reply didn’t sway Hostin, though, who said she was surprised Griffin had worked on the Freedom Caucus with people like Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, both of whom Hostin said: “lit this flame that we’re seeing in our country.”
Griffin agreed that Jordan and Meadows “hold some significant amount of responsibility,” but maintained that the group used to focus on “budget, securing the border, bringing down the deficit” and was “not this vast, right-wing conspiracy.”
After staying quiet for much of the back-and-forth, Navarro chimed in, slamming the Freedom Caucus as “a thorn on the side of people like Paul Ryan and John Boehner.” The comment ticked off Griffin, who shot back at Navarro, “You criticize Paul Ryan all the time for his role at FOX.”
Ryan is a member of the board of the Fox Corporation, which owns FOX News.
Navarro swiftly shut down Griffin’s comment, icily telling the co-host, “I know Paul Ryan. I can criticize him because he is my friend.”
As she continued to speak and the already tense panel grew more heated, Goldberg tried to bring the segment to an end without much success. Left with no other option, she gave up and just yelled over her co-hosts: “Excuse me, ladies! We are going to take a break right now.”
They might all need a bit more time in the Bahamas, perhaps.