Kathie Lee Gifford thinks “The View” has become much meaner than before.
The TV personality, 72, appeared on Monday’s episode of the podcast “Tomi Lahren is Fearless” and criticized “The View” for becoming more polarizing and “vicious” than it was in years past.
When host Tomi Lahren asked Gifford if she felt the nation was becoming more divided right now, Gifford brought up daytime talk shows.
“There’s just more of us, and we’re meaner now,” she said. “People will at least pretend to have some manners. Now there’s viciousness.”
“I mean, I used to be on ‘The View’ and get to talk to Joy[Behar]and Whoopi[Goldberg]and a lot of other people there. Debbie Matenopoulos and I are still good friends. And I’ve never had a problem with anybody because they weren’t trying to…I don’t convert everyone.”
“I share my faith, but I’m not going to say, ‘If you don’t have faith, you’re going to hell.’ I’m not going to do that, you know?” she continued. “I want people to have as much heaven as possible instead of hell in their lives.”
When asked if she thought it would be the same if Lahren were on “The View” today, Griffin brought up the “viciousness” again and called the change in the show “sad.”
“I mean, everyone just seems like a miserable person now,” Gifford said. “I might make people unhappy just by talking like I do, but no one would confuse me with being miserable, right?”
“I am joy personified,” she added.
Current hosts of “The View” include Goldberg, Behar, Sunny Hostin, Ana Navarro, Sarah Haines and Alyssa Farrar Griffin.
“The View” has long been the subject of heated on-air arguments and behind-the-scenes drama between co-hosts.
Former co-host Meghan McCain previously revealed she left the show after Behar made brutal comments when she returned from maternity leave in January 2021.
“I finally got back on the show, and the day I got back on the show, Joy Behar said on the air, ‘Nobody missed you, we missed you, you shouldn’t have come back,'” McCain recalled on “The Commentary Magazine Podcast” in August 2022.
“I didn’t feel supported when I had my child and when I came back. In the end, that was it,” she added. “That’s why I quit!”
