The View's hiring of serial liar and Trump propagandist Alyssa Farah Griffin is a huge mistake

This post has been adapted from an earlier version related to Farah Griffin’s hiring at CNN; that post can be found here.

Alyssa Farah The View

Variety has followed various tabloids in reporting that The View has decided to hire a former top Trump official and current CNN commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin.

Farah Griffin previously held several press and communications roles in the Trump administration, notably serving as the White House’s director of strategic communications. According to a Washington Post report on her resignation, Farah Griffin left the administration to pursue a career in consulting, but it seems she was actually auditioning for a role in the cable news industry.

Farah Griffin, who would be following in the footsteps of the likes of Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Meghan McCain as a pity hire “permanent conservative co-host”, has already caused issues for the show, as The Daily Beast reported that frequent View guest Wanda Sykes pulled out, with a show insider telling The Daily Beast, “She didn’t want to be part of helping a Trumper launder her reputation.”

The Beast also reported about how View hosts repeatedly confronted Farah Griffin in October 2021, forcing her into multiple concessions about the Trump administration – while also praising current Fox Business host, former Trump economic adviser, and noted charlatan Larry Kudlow as “smart.” There was also a similar appearance earlier this year.

Before joining CNN, Farah Griffin was a staple on cable news. According to Media Matters' internal guest database, Farah Griffin appeared on weekday news programming on CNN (9 times) and Fox News (21) repeatedly since leaving the Trump administration in December 2020 and joining CNN in December 2021. She has appeared on CNN exclusively since August of that year. During those appearances, she has worked to sand down the edges of her own involvement in spreading lies about the 2020 presidential election.

Farah Griffin’s tenure at the White House was marked by deception and failure. She was a key figure on the team that mismanaged the White House’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was part of Donald Trump’s misinformation campaign ahead of the presidential election. Farah Griffin attacked the presidential debate commission for “trying to weigh the scales” to advantage Joe Biden after Trump’s positive COVID-19 test forced the cancellation of in-person debates, and she defended Trump after he asked the Proud Boys militia to “stand back and stand by” amid threats of violence ahead of the election. (Members of the group were later involved in the January 6 insurrection.) On Election Day, Farah Griffin claimed election officials in Pennsylvania were “putting their thumb on the scale” to advantage Biden.

Even after resigning from the administration, Farah Griffin continued running interference for Trump. She defended his attempt to interfere with the election results in Georgia, and on CNN she pushed back against Trump’s historic second impeachment, which she called a “charade,” while arguing that Trump should resign instead.

The daughter of right-wing conspiracy theorist and WorldNetDaily founder Joseph Farah, Alyssa Farah Griffin got her start as a so-called "special Washington correspondent" for her father's notorious and discredited website. Her thin publication history for WorldNetDaily was standard fare for the fringe outlet, echoing right-wing talking points to attack Democratic officials and the mainstream media while promoting anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. (It must be noted that Farah Griffin told The View earlier in 2022 that her father boycotted her wedding over her comments about January 6.)

Farah Griffin leapt from the toxic fringe of the media ecosystem directly into the Republican mainstream with roles as a communications director for then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and for the right-wing Freedom Caucus, and later as press secretary for then-Vice President Mike Pence. After joining the Trump administration, Farah Griffin cycled through the Department of Defense before ending up in a prominent White House role.

Alyssa Farah Griffin is not a journalist; she’s a professional partisan apparatchik. She did her best to rehabilitate her image after fleeing the failed Trump administration, but she cannot be considered a reliable source for information given her lengthy history of lies and distortions. There is a reason that The View is having such trouble finding a responsible right-wing commentator with credibility in mainstream circles: The modern right-wing movement will not allow that.