"The View" co-hosts Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sunny Hostin clashed on Wednesday while discussing the rise in antisemitism on college campuses and Ivy League university presidents being grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Hostin argued that Tuesday's congressional hearing on the rise in antisemitism on college campuses should have been about free speech. "The most hateful and heinous speech is the most protected speech," she said.
Co-host Sara Haines declared that college campuses "have not been good for free speech in years."
"What you heard was them saying what is completely accurate under the law, it depends on the context. So if someone does yell at a crowd racial slurs or calls for genocide in a public place, in a crowd, that is protected speech," Hostin said.
Griffin interjected and said that it was about the code of conduct at these specific universities, not the law. She suggested codes of conduct could go further than the law to protect students.
"The codes of conduct must adhere to the law," Hostin argued, adding that they cannot go against the Constitution. "When we’re talking about this one-on-one type of thing, yes, that is when that conduct leads to harassment and could be actionable by the university."
"You have to commit genocide to be able to condemn genocidal language? That’s a dangerous slippery slope," Griffin said, before Hostin pushed back. "That's actual words being used on college campuses."
Hostin argued that the law protected that type of language and declared colleges to be a "perfect place to have these sorts of uncomfortable conversations."
"Jewish students don't feel comfortable on college campuses," Griffin pushed back. "If I said this about any other community on Earth other than Jews, I would be canceled 10 times 'til Sunday."
Haines agreed, "Yes, you would."
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg and Hostin said that was not true. In a second segment on the subject, Hostin said that she believed "intimidation and harassment of any group, of course, is hurtful and hateful," but said, "the law is the law."
"It’s not the courts, it's the college codes of conduct," Griffin argued. "I just want to say this was the most stunning congressional hearing I’ve possibly ever heard. I think every single one of these three presidents should resign for their lack of moral clarity."
Griffin was met with applause from the audience and one of her fellow co-hosts, as Hostin interrupted and said, "moral clarity for following the law?"
"The View" co-host Joy Behar also chimed in, "Let her finish, Sunny, let her talk."
"The definition of genocide, the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group… The antisemitic hatred that we are seeing in this country, the most prevalent hate crime victims are Jews and we have to be loud and speak out," Griffin said.
Haines seemed to agree with Griffin, arguing earlier in the program that universities had an obligation to protect their students, noting, "This is not the government intervening in free speech."
"There are examples of people that were let go from their jobs without any due process, professors that said something that made a college student uncomfortable," she said.
