Whoopi Goldberg and Alyssa Farah Griffin Get in Heated Debate Over Children in Classrooms During the Pandemic on ‘The View’: “Children Are Alive Now”

Alyssa Farah Griffin got into a heated debate with her co-hosts during today’s episode of The View about whether children should’ve been kept in schools during the pandemic. Whoopi Goldberg fired back at the former White House staffer when she said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got it right by trying to keep children in the classroom.

“I know many voters who have said, ‘I will never vote for a politician who kept kids out of the classroom,’” Griffin said of the topic she feels “very strongly” about. “We’ve seen the stats now about how much it’s put our kids behind, losing nearly a year of education.”

Goldberg immediately hit back, telling the co-host, “Children are alive now because we kept them out of [the classroom].” However, Griffin stood her ground as she said, “But there was a way to do it right.”

“No there wasn’t. If there had been a way to do it right, the guy that you were over there with, would’ve done it right,” Goldberg fumed, referring to Donald Trump, before Griffin said they had “pitched a lot of ideas he didn’t take.”

Goldberg added that “the people that did it right, saved those kids’ lives.” While she noted that it’s going to be a little harder to bring them up to speed, she said, “They’re here and that’s the difference.” Although, the debate didn’t stop there as Griffin opened up about the school choice organizations she worked with.

“[They] did hybrid education, they did some in-person education, they gave homeschool parents the resources that they need,” she explained. “The idea that we just give up on kids for a year, you can protect their health while educating children.”

Meanwhile, Goldberg dug her heels in. She said, “No we couldn’t. If we could’ve figured out how to do that, if we had known what we were dealing with, if we had had that crystal ball like you were asking for, we would’ve had this information but we didn’t.”

She continued, “People did the best they could, in the great states that did it, in the bad states that didn’t get it together the way they should’ve, everybody did their best.”

The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.