Alyssa Farah Griffin looked at Katie Zacharia's credentials — Pepperdine Law graduate, former Fox News contributor, Department of Homeland Security veteran — and said, "I don't know how this gal got through the door."
Sara Haines knew exactly how. "I can tell you how she got through the door!" she fired back, her meaning so obvious that Whoopi Goldberg had to intervene.
Goldberg laughed and chided Haines with, "Stop it. Don't even think about it." Sunny Hostin jumped in on the insinuation too. The co-hosts had made it clear they believed Zacharia's looks were her only qualification for the White House podium.
So much for a show that claims to empower women.
This kind of mean-spirited talk about Trump officials has become a pattern with The View. When Karoline Leavitt was named press secretary in January 2025, Joy Behar offered this assessment of her qualifications: "She's been probably put in the — because according to Donald Trump she's a 10."
The comments were clearly meant to imply Zacharia only for hired for her looks or worse that she performed some kind of sexual favor in order to get the job. Either interpretation is remarkable coming from a network that spent years lecturing America about how women are discussed in professional settings.
Just days before Haines had ranted about a joke comedian Shane Gilles told on SNL about how sexy women dress at gyms now a days. Haines said it was misogyny and empowered men to commit crimes like the Cornell 7 gang rape.
That’s talking out both sides of your mouth.
Zacharia's actual résumé doesn't come up much in these segments. Pepperdine Law doesn't get a mention. Her DHS work doesn't get a mention. Her legal analysis career at Fox News doesn't get a mention. The conversation skips straight past every credential and lands on the one thing that has nothing to do with the job.
The irony runs deeper than one bad segment. ABC's parent company Disney has spent the better part of a decade building an entire corporate identity around female empowerment. Every press release, every shareholder letter, every diversity initiative hammers the same point: women should be evaluated on merit, not appearance. Their own morning show hosts apparently didn't get the memo.
The fact that the ladies of The View, all of whom claim to be professional hosts and journalists, felt comfortable enough to imply on air that an accomplished woman slept her way into a government job — tells you everything about what "feminism" actually means on that set.
It means feminism for women who agree with you. Aka Democrat voting women. Women who vote the right way, think the right thoughts, work for the right administration. Step outside that circle and suddenly your law degree doesn’t mean anything. Your government service evaporates. You become "this gal" who got through a door she shouldn't have.