A surprising moment unfolded behind the scenes of “The View” this week when longtime liberal commentator Joy Behar reportedly encouraged Vice President JD Vance to pursue the presidency, despite her well-documented opposition to the Republican Party.
The remark surfaced publicly during the show’s companion podcast, “Behind the Table,” when executive producer Brian Teta recounted the moment to Behar on air.
According to Teta, Behar had pulled Vance aside during a commercial break and told him he should run for president because “he has a good vibe.”
Behar didn’t deny it. Instead, she qualified her praise with a pointed reminder of her political leanings. “I think that, even though, for a Republican. Mind you, I’m not a Republican,” she said.
Vance’s visit to the daytime program was originally billed as a book tour stop, promoting his recently released memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.”
The conversation, however, quickly expanded into a wide-ranging grilling covering Jeffrey Epstein, border policy, and the state of the U.S. economy.
Behar’s comments about Vance fit into a broader explanation she gave about how she evaluates politicians across party lines.
She cited her past support for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, despite his Republican affiliation at the time, as evidence that party label alone doesn’t drive her vote.
“I don’t mind a Republican on the city level because it needs a little discipline. But on the national level, I want somebody with a good heart. And those are more in the Democratic Party, in my opinion,” Behar explained.
She then made a broader claim about the two parties’ priorities, asserting that Democrats focus on aiding struggling Americans while Republicans favor wealthier citizens.
“They care about the poor. They help people,” Behar said of Democrats, before adding of the GOP, “The Republican Party is much more about saving taxes for rich people. So, I’m not a Republican.”
Behar’s commentary toward Vance carried an unusual tone given her track record of frequently slamming the Trump administration on air. That tension showed up again when Vance referenced another off-camera compliment Behar had given him.
“Joy said when we were off air that I’m ‘fine,’ which I think is about the best endorsement I’m gonna get out of Joy Behar,” Vance said after the show returned from break.
Behar offered a quick correction to soften her praise, replying, “For a Republican.”
The most notable political prediction came when Behar speculated about a possible 2028 general election matchup, naming California Gov. Gavin Newsom as a fitting rival for Vance. Speaking with Teta on the podcast, she reiterated that her personal opinion of Vance is not entirely negative.
“Truthfully, as I said to you in the beginning of this conversation, I don’t think that he’s a bad guy,” Behar said, before predicting how a Vance-Newsom contest might play out on a debate stage. “So, if he runs against, say, Gavin Newsom, that’ll be an interesting debate to see those two because they’re both intelligent.”
Beyond Behar, Vance faced pushback from other panelists during his appearance, including co-host Sunny Hostin, who argued repeatedly that Black history has been erased under the current administration’s policies, an assertion Vance disputed.
Later that same night, Vance appeared on Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” to share his own take on how the interview had gone, telling host Greg Gutfeld that the hostility he braced for never fully materialized.
“I expected them to be absolutely vicious, and they were only a little bit vicious. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be,” Vance said of his time on the panel.
He also revealed a twist regarding which co-host leveled the most serious accusation against him during the broadcast, admitting his prediction about who would attack him hardest missed the mark entirely.
“I thought that Sunny, the woman to my left, was going to call me a racist. In reality, it was Whoopi, the woman to my right, who called me a racist. So expectations were defied,” Vance said, drawing a laugh from Gutfeld’s audience.
The vice president’s dual television appearances Tuesday captured both the friction and the unexpected moments of common ground that can emerge when conservative leaders face off against some of daytime television’s most vocal liberal personalities.
