After a psychologist made headlines arguing people should avoid Trump-supporting relatives this holiday season, “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin agreed, saying many people feel “someone voted not only against their families but against them.”
Shortly after the election, Yale University chief psychiatry resident Dr. Amanda Calhoun spoke to MSNBC host Joy Reid about how liberals who are devastated by Trump’s re-election can cope with the news, including separating from loved ones.
“There is a push, I think just a societal norm that if somebody is your family, that they are entitled to your time, and I think the answer is absolutely not,” Calhoun told the talk show host. “So if you are going to a situation where you have family members, where you have close friends who you know have voted in ways that are against you, like what you said, against your livelihood, it’s completely fine to not be around those people and to tell them why, you know, to say, ‘I have a problem with the way that you voted, because it went against my very livelihood and I’m not going to be around you this holiday.’”
Hostin said she “completely” understands Calhoun’s point about distancing oneself from family this holiday season.
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“I really do feel that this candidate, you know, President-elect Trump, is just a different type of candidate, from the things he said and the things he’s done and the things he will do, it’s more of a moral issue for me and I think it’s more of a moral issue for other people,” she said. “We’re just — you know, I would say it was different when, let’s say, Bush got elected. You may not have agreed with his policies, but you didn’t feel like he was a deeply flawed person, deeply flawed by character, deeply flawed in morality.”
Co-hosts Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin immediately interjected, arguing that people had indeed criticized former President Bush as soon as he was elected and during his two terms.
“But you’ve gotta admit, they’re very different figures, I mean, you [Griffin], along with [General Mark] Milley and along with John Kelly, warned us about how deeply flawed he was as a candidate. And so, I think when people feel that someone voted not only against their families but against them and against people that they loved, I think it’s okay to take a beat,” Hostin said.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg said that while she respects the will of the voters, if she had an LGBTQ+ child, she wouldn’t want to put her in a position “where she has to sit with someone who doesn’t understand her,” adding that “with mixed families I feel the same way. You know. There are certain things where you don’t have to put your family in the middle of it. You can have dinner at another point, but it might not be time to gather, because, you know, there’s gonna be some tension.”
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“I think everybody needs to do what’s right for them,” co-host Ana Navarro began. “You know, I think you need to look into yourself and if — going to a family gathering or with friends where it’s going to stress you out, then don’t go.”
However, she went on to explain that her husband has 5 children, and that while most of them and/or their spouses voted for Trump, he insists on seeing his family despite him and Navarro voting for Harris.
“For our family, I mean, he has told them, ‘I will not let politics split up our family.’ Al and I voted for Kamala. Others didn’t. He is going to see his grandchildren come Hell or high water. That’s the choice that works for him,” Navarro said.
Griffin offered a similar sentiment, saying, “I’m all for healthy boundaries, but tend to think mashed potatoes are the great equalizer, like, you don’t want to spend Thanksgiving by yourself because you can’t set politics aside.”
“I find that every day in every job I worked in and social circles I run in, I’ve been around people with different politics and it’s never gotten in the way of having friendships. It simply hasn’t. I wouldn’t have had any friends,” she added.
Haines agreed as well, saying that while she does have to check in with herself to see what she can handle from people at times but, ultimately, “Toxic personalities don’t have political affiliations, it’s a personality trait that sucks. We all are related to people like that. So, whatever your reason is, I would never let my politics be the reason I don’t show up to see my family, because they won’t always be there.”
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