Elisabeth Hasselbeck returned to The View on Monday (March 2) with an inspiring message for audiences who know of her tense history with some of the cohosts.
“I am thankful to be here with you all. This is really a gift. We go way back, we go way back, and it’s a blessing to be near you anytime that I can,” she said. “To just have voices as women in the world right now, I’m forever reminded of the gift of our freedoms, particularly in light of what’s going on with Iran, just that women can be beautiful, voiced, respected, and the hope of that there is wonderfully significant. But a reminder to us today of our blessing of being able to share our thoughts and listen. Civil discourse is not dead. We might have differences of opinion, but we love each other.”
Hasselbeck continued, “For the young people watching, it’s important to see that you can have, and we’ve said it before, we can hold our positions in one hand and each other’s hands in the other, and be able to just live as Americans of the freedom that we have and speak our hearts and minds. And so we get to do that all week. It might get a little spicy at times, but we do not hate each other. We love each other, and we have the freedom to do it. And it is important to remind everybody.”
Hasselbeck is the fourth guest host to join The View this season amid Alyssa Farah Griffin‘s maternity leave, following Savannah Chrisley, Amanda Carpenter, and Sara Eisen. Hasselbeck was a regular cohost on the show from 2003 to 2013 before departing for Fox and Friends, and she returned to The View as guest host in Seasons 23 and 25.
The conservative commentator has been a vocal critic of her former cohosts on the show, particularly Joy Behar. When Behar criticized Carrie Underwood for performing at Donald Trump‘s inauguration, for example, she said on X (formerly Twitter) that Behar needed to “simmer down” and later appeared on Sean Hannity‘s show to say that The View “refused to put anyone there who has a lick of sense on most days” and said Behar simply “wants to attach her name to Carrie Underwood’s name so that she maintains relevance because she knows the ship is sinking.”
About the news that Hasselbeck would return to the show in Griffin’s absence, executive producer Brian Teta said, “We announced all these people coming on, and our fans have always had strong reactions to it, but there was a lot of reaction to Elisabeth Hasselbeck, which surprised me a little bit because she’s — don’t get me wrong, Elisabeth has controversial takes occasionally and passionate takes — but you two worked together for 10 years and overall got along.”
In response, Joy Behar, who was not present for Monday’s show as she is usually off on Mondays, said to Teta, “It’s fine, she’s a good kid… She comes from a very nice family. Actually, her parents are Democrats. So I don’t know where she comes up with this Republican position, but she — I think maybe her husband, when she got married — she became more conservative.”
Before arriving at the table on Monday, Hasselbeck said she received a “Full Armor of God” playset to prepare her for the turn. Then, showing off a Bible, she said, “I’ve been trying to prep for The View, so my main research is right there… That’s the armor!”
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