Kathie Lee Gifford is weighing in on where she stands with The View today.
“Now there’s a viciousness, you know?” Gifford, 72, said during the Monday, March 9, episode of OutKick’s “Tomi Lahren Is Fearless” podcast. “I mean, I used to be able to go on The View and talk to Joy [Behar] and Whoopi [Goldberg] and a lot of the other people there — Debbie Matenopoulos and I are still good pals — and never had a problem with anybody because they weren’t trying to, I don’t proselytize everything.”
She continued, “I share my faith, but I don’t say, ‘You’re going to go to hell if you don’t.’ I don’t do that, you know? I want people to have a little bit more heaven in their life than hell.”
Host Tomi Lahren, for her part, went on to ask whether Gifford thought “it would be the same now” if she were to go on The View while explaining her history with the show.
“I mean, The View is a much different show. I mean ABC in general is a different network than, I grew up watching ABC by the way, as I mentioned to you. I mean people would think I grew on Fox News, but I actually kind of grew up on ABC in large part because I loved watching The View. And I loved watching you and I love watching even Good Morning America or the nightly news,” Lahren said, to which Gifford replied, “Yes, but you know what I mean then about the viciousness.”
When Lahren pointed out that it “feels like a lot of it has changed,” Gifford noted, “That part has changed.”
“And it’s sad because I mean everybody seems like they’re just miserable people now,” Gifford continued. “Nobody thinks I make people miserable just talking the way we’re talking but nobody will ever confuse me with a miserable person, right?”
Gifford is no stranger to morning talk shows, cohosting the fourth hour of Today with Hoda Kotb for 11 years before departing in 2019. Jenna Bush Hager took over her role, while Sheinelle Jones replaced Kotb after her exit in 2025.
Gifford returned to studio 1A on Monday to promote her new book, Nero & Paul: How the Gospel of Grace Defeated the Ruler of Rome — and had a reunion for Kotb, who has been involved in the show amid the ongoing search for coanchor Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy Guthrie.
“Have you actually read it, though?” Gifford asked Kotb, who was promoting the “page-turner” of a novel and admitted that she hadn’t. “I will,” Kotb continued. “Because I love you.”
While continuing the conversation, Gifford then suggested the best way for Kotb to read the book. “When you’re on the beach in your thong over Memorial Day, I want you to crack it open,” Gifford quipped.
