Just moments before Vice President Kamala Harris was set to appear on ‘The View,’ host Sunny Hostin and guest host Ana Navarro were pulled from the set. Both had tested positive for breakthrough cases of COVID-19. (Watch Above)
It was a remarkable live television moment filled with confusion. In the middle of the show, co-host Joy Behar looked toward her producers and said “There seems to be something happening here that I’m not 100% aware of. Can someone please apprise me of the situation?”
very awkward situation on The View as Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro appear to have tested positive for COVID pic.twitter.com/gyBF3CFRwX
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 24, 2021
Without explanation, a producer explained that Hostin and Navarro needed to leave the set. Behar then began introducing Harris, but was told to hold off. She threw to commercial.
When the show came back, Behar explained that Hostin and Navarro had tested positive for COVID-19. “They’ll be okay, I’m sure, because they’re both vaccinated up the wazoo.”
Harris’ interview – marketed as her “her first in-studio talk show appearance since taking office” – was turned into a remote conversation from a different studio within the ABC building.
VP Kamala Harris will now do today's interview on The View remotely in another room after two co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro tested positive for COVID (breakthrough) and had to be removed from the set live on air. pic.twitter.com/4fnVr7mbNH
— The Recount (@therecount) September 24, 2021
“Sunny and Ana are strong women, and I know they’re fine, but it really also does speak to the fact that they’re vaccinated and vaccines really make all the difference because otherwise we would be concerned about hospitalization and worse,” Harris said.
.@VP Harris: "Sunny [Hostin] and Ana [Navarro] are strong women and I know they're fine, but it really also does speak to the fact that they're vaccinated and vaccines really make all the difference because otherwise we would be concerned about hospitalization and worse." pic.twitter.com/m5NMwT5dk8
— The View (@TheView) September 24, 2021
She added, “When I think of it in the context of any one of us who have had these awful experiences of holding the hands of a loved one who is in an ICU bed, or is near death — like, don’t put your families through that. The vaccine is free. It is safe, and it will save your life. So folks just need to get vaccinated.”