Joy Behar Doubles Down on Claim No Woman Will Ever Be Elected President

Joy Behar, a co-host on ABC's "The View," reiterated her stance that a woman will never be elected President of the United States. The discussion arose during a segment where the co-hosts were discussing Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and the broader topic of identity politics.

"I think this country will vote for an obese, Jewish, Black, homosexual before a woman," Behar stated, prompting further discussion among the panel. Guest host Star Jones echoed Behar's sentiment, recalling the perceived struggles of prominent female candidates. Jones alluded to former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, suggesting their campaigns did not succeed due to factors beyond their gender.

However, co-host Sara Haines offered a counterpoint, arguing that voters do not exclusively base their decisions on identity. Alyssa Farah Griffin, the show's Republican co-host, expressed a differing opinion, predicting a female president within the next two decades.

Patrice Onwuka, vice president for economic policy at the Independent Women's Center for Economic Opportunity, criticized Behar's viewpoint as a product of prioritizing identity politics over practicality. Onwuka suggested that Behar and Jones failed to acknowledge that the female candidates they supported may have been rejected by voters based on their policies and public perception rather than gender. She specifically referenced Clinton's "deplorables" comment and Harris's vice presidency, stating that "It was not their looks or gender but their policies and personalities that America rejected."

Psychotherapist and author Jonathan Alpert commented that Behar's interpretation of election outcomes might be overly simplistic. "Two women lost to Donald Trump," Alpert noted. "That doesn’t prove Americans won’t elect a woman. It proves those two women lost those two elections. Sexism may have played a role for some voters, but you can’t take millions of votes and diagnose all of them as sexism."

This is not the first time Behar has expressed such views. In July, during another episode of "The View," she challenged her co-hosts to name a woman who could win the presidency. She also expressed skepticism about Kamala Harris's potential to win a presidential election in 2028.

Meanwhile, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in a recent interview with The New York Times, acknowledged that she is considering a presidential run in 2028. She reflected on her identity as a woman and a Latina, stating, "I’m not naïve to the fact that we are living under a very regressive administration, and I happen to be a woman, and I, you know, happen to be Latina. And I think that there’s a lot of conversation about electability, and I don’t kind of shy away from those realities."