On CNN State of the Union, panelist Alyssah Farah Griffin pre-gamed the upcoming presidential debate by blasting America for not yet having elected a female president.

Watch as Farah Griffin gleefully reprises her role as the nominal Republican on ABC’s The View:

CNN STATE OF THE UNION

9/8/24

9:44 AM

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: And the reality is, you shouldn't under underestimate Donald Trump. He has now done more presidential race- debates, I should say, than anyone in history, and he’s somebody who came up on television. He's a communicator. He’s somebody who is used to speaking to a mass audience. If he can stay focused and he stays to the core issues: economy, border, it's a good night for him. But we've also seen the world in which he shouts out the Proud Boys, or he talks about Hannibal Lecter, or he gets into name calling. That could go against him. To Kamala Harris- she needs to look presidential. We're incredibly backwards as a country that we've never had a female president. So for a lot of people seeing somebody up there who's a woman who might be our first female president, she needs to seem commanding. She cannot get too in the weeds on policy. She needs to talk about it, but can't get sidetracked. Big picture. How will you demonstrably make people's lives better? How will you turn the economy around? If she can do that and not get rattled by Donald Trump, it’ll be a good night for her.

If you close your eyes, you can just as easily imagine Griffin saying this to View co-host Asunción Cummings Hostin. With great care so as not to get yelled at and right before Ana Navarro interjects with some galaxy-brain take.

It’s not just the inanity of Griffin’s take that makes it feel like it would land on The View, it is simultaneously reflexive sexism and denigration of Trump supporters. In Griffin’s view, America is a “backwards” country because it has not yet elected a woman.

Consider, though, that the first female presidential candidate was not nominated by a major party until 2016- when the Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton. America chose Donald Trump instead. And this is the underlying basis for Griffin slamming America as a “backwards” country. 

A garbage take, uttered in 2024 and on CNN by the nominal Republican at ABC’s The View.