Co-hosts of ABC's The View expressed fear over a third-party presidential candidate harming President Joe Biden's chance at re-election this November.
During a Monday broadcast of the program, co-host Sunny Hostin said she was "very concerned" over a third-party candidate and noted fellow co-host Joy Behar previously said political activist and four-time former third-party candidate Ralph Nader was a "spoiler" candidate.
Hostin noted former 2016 Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein had surpassed former President Donald Trump's margin of victory in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and suggested her campaign threw the election for Trump.
"Had she, perhaps, not been part of it, Hillary Clinton would have been president," she said of the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.
Fellow co-host Ana Navarro referenced former 1992 independent presidential candidate Ross Perot was a "spoiler" for then-incumbent President George H.W. Bush.
"In this case, you have got Joe Biden, a sane, decent, normal human being running against a man who is an existential threat to democracy and to the foreign world, to the international world, to the universe," Navarro said of Trump.
Navarro said the country couldn't "afford" to have a spoiler presidential candidate and referenced West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who is reportedly eyeing a third-party presidential run in the upcoming election.
Former Trump administration employee and co-host Alyssa Farah-Griffin said there were "definitely concerns" of a "spoiler effect" in the upcoming election, though conceded she believed America was "overdue" for a new political party to compete with the dominant Democratic and Republican Parties.
"Whenever this conversation comes up, it's almost like we're all tacitly acknowledging that Biden is weaker than Trump," Farah-Griffin said. "Because, if Trump is actually weaker in a general than Biden, wouldn't that mean that ... we shouldn't be worried that he's going to lose more votes?"
Navarro disagreed with Farah-Griffin's speculation and said Trump supporters were "cult members" and would not defect from supporting the former president.
"The people who support Biden are normal human beings," Navarro said.
The former Trump administration employee said she didn't believe 40 million ardent Trump supporters were cult members.
"There's a lot of people who can close their nose," she said. "They don't pay attention to the 24-hour news cycle."
Farrah-Griffin said most of Trump's supporters cared about the economy and were unaware of stories plaguing Trump, including the Friday defamation suit verdict against the former president in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll.
Navarro countered Farrah-Griffin, noting Trump's support had only increased following his multiple indictments last year.
"He keeps running away with primaries," she said of Trump's dominant victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. "I think it's concerning."
"We all heard him boast on tape in 2016 about grabbing a woman, about sexually assaulting a woman, and Republicans still voted for him blindly," Navarro said.
Fellow co-host Sara Haines said it was "not the time" to usher in a third-party candidate.
"We are in a bipartisan situation right now. There is not a runway to bring in a third," Haines said, though conceded she was "all for" a "split-ticket third party" option moving forward past the 2024 election.
During a broadcast of The View earlier this month, fellow co-host and actress Whoopi Goldberg asked if former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney would "please" consider a third-party run to pull votes from Trump.
