Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner has called out her morning TV show competitor The View in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, likening the left-leaning show to a recent Massachusetts council meeting mobbed by yelling transgender activists.
Faulkner, 59, threw some serious shade on the ABC hosts for resorting to ‘vitriol’ and having a ‘myopic’ worldview and a ‘dicey’ approach to facts.
‘On The View, there is this sort of, shout it, cuss it, do whatever you gotta do to get a little more attention around the hot topics,’ she said.
She let loose on The View stars, including Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin, after her 11am Fox News show, The Faulkner Focus, beat them for the first time in a shock ratings upset.
Faulkner The Focus received 2,552,000 viewers in January, edging ahead of The View’s 2,508,000 – a significant de-throning of the long-running ABC show by Faulkner’s, which has a smaller potential audience on cable.
In the wide-ranging interview with DailyMail.com, Faulkner, 59, does not hold back – revealing why her opposition to transgender competitors in women’s sports is personal and describes her bi-racial marriage to her Jewish husband, 57, jokingly calling herself a cougar.
She described how her Baptist-Christian faith was a central part of her life, and lauded the Trump administration’s racing start with DOGE shaking up Washington DC.
But the Fox News anchor’s saltiest comments were reserved for the women with whom she competes in the 11am hour on TV: the hosts of ABC’s The View.
Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, 59, slammed The View for resorting to ‘shouting and cussing to get attention’, accusing them of ‘vitriol’, a ‘myopic’ worldview and a ‘dicey’ approach to facts
The Faulkner Focus, seen here in an exclusive interview with President Trump, received 2.552million viewers in January, edging ahead of The View’s 2.508million – de-throning the long-running ABC show
Faulkner said The View’s big problem is that their show is pre-taped and their unique quality compared to other talk shows is simply ‘vitriol’
‘I’ve seen it when there was a powerhouse journalist,’ Faulkner told DailyMail.com. ‘When Barbara Walters was leading it.
‘But now I don’t really know what the show is, apart from talk, talk, talk; a lot of combativeness.
‘We have lots of guests who feel spicy and passionate about what they say,’ the newscaster said. ‘That’s not unique to The View or to any other show that I’ve done.
‘What I do think is unique to them is vitriol.
‘A news director told me early in my career, you don’t have to shout breaking news, and you don’t have to shout the truth.
‘It’s not personal,’ she added. ‘But you gotta have the chops to be able to do it.
‘I’ve seen Sunny Hostin read so many apologies on the air recently for the legal exposure of some of the things that she and others have said on the show. That’s dicey.’
Faulkner actually appeared on The View herself in 2018, promoting one of her books about the life lessons she learned growing up as a ‘military brat’ to her Army Airman, Vietnam veteran father.
Faulkner, pictured with her husband Tony Berlin, appeared on The View in 2018, promoting one of her books about the life lessons she learned growing up as a ‘military brat’ to her Army Airman, Vietnam veteran father
Speaking about her 2018 appearance on The View, Faulkner said Hostin came after her and showed a picture of her biracial children on the ‘digital wall behind me. They switched the conversation away from the book and made it about race’
During her appearance, Faulkner, who is black and married to a white man, said she was perturbed when Hostin brought up her race – but said Goldberg was ‘gracious’ and brought the conversation back round to her book.
‘Sunny Hostin came after me, they had put a picture of my biracial children on a huge digital wall behind me, and she took the conversation to race,’ she said. ‘I knew my kids would be watching.
‘Whoopi goes, ‘You know what, let’s talk about the book.’ And I appreciated that.’
Controversies on The View include Goldberg in 2022 claiming the holocaust was not about race. Years earlier in 2010, she defended Mel Gibson saying he is ‘not a racist’ despite reportedly using the N-word and making anti-Semitic comments.
In 2015, guest co-host Kelly Osborne got in trouble for saying ‘If you kick out all the Latinos who’s going to clean your toilets?’
In one episode, Behar revealed she dressed in blackface when she was younger.
And on camera in a 2023 show, Goldberg asked co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin if she was pregnant when she was not.
Faulkner said she believes her Fox News show’s ‘superpower’ is that it’s live, not pre-taped like The View, as well as having guests with diverse political views.
The Fox host covered the controversial Worcester, Massachusetts council meeting where transgender activists yelled at the public podium on her show the day of her interview with DailyMail.com
DailyMail.com was on set as Faulkner hosted two shows, called on sources to contact her about federal workers’ access to retirement and exchanged emails while at her desk
‘I think that’s difficult to do if you only see the world myopically, and that’s the feeling that I get when I watch other shows, The View as an example,’ she said.
‘That isn’t to say that they don’t have people on with different opinions, but the shouting is coming from the left on that show.
‘It looks like one of those anti-DOGE meetings or the hearings on Capitol Hill. Democrats right now are apoplectic and they’re shouting and they’re cussing at us.’
Faulkner was comparing The View to the scenes at a Worcester, Massachusetts council meeting on February 11, where transgender activists yelled angrily at the public podium and city leaders voted in favor of making the town a ‘sanctuary city’ for the trans community.
The Fox News host covered the raucous and controversial meeting on her show the day of her interview.
Though her comments suggested The View is not live, the ABC show usually is broadcast live, though sometimes airs pre-taped shows or repeats.
For example, in March last year, Entertainment Weekly reported the airing of a ‘pre-taped’ episode ‘before live shows kick up again’.
The show advertises itself as typically having ‘Live broadcasts five days a week’.
