Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar Clash with Sara Haines Over “Rigged” Electoral College: “It Was Founded in Slavery”

Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines battled it out on this morning’s episode of The View over their different takes on the electoral college, with Hostin and co-host Joy Behar slamming the system and its roots in slavery, and Haines insisting she understood “the spirit” of the institution.

During a conversation about replacement theory — the extreme conspiracy belief allegedly followed by the Buffalo shooting suspect that white Americans are being “replaced” by minorities — Haines said proponents of the theory in media and politics have been cloaking it in more palatable, vote-based messaging.

“They keep swapping it around and selling it as, ‘Be afraid, because these elections are now going to be overrun.’ The interesting part is, we we already live in a country where the popular vote supports left-leaning issues,” she said on Tuesday’s episode. “It’s the electoral college and a lot of those protections, and a lot of the — on a local level — the gerrymandering. The redistricting. So they’re manipulating who can vote and how they can vote.”

Before Haines could continue, Behar cut in to say, “The system is rigged. The electoral college is a rigged idea,” and Hostin chimed in to say, “And it’s based in slavery.”

Haines, who is originally from Iowa, replied, “Well, it’s also based on the fact that in places like where I come from, in the middle of the country, we don’t have the population of people, so are we saying that a vote from an Iowan or a less populous state should not have its input in national elections?”

As she started to continue, Behar returned to cut in with the comment, “One vote for each person.” While Haines said, “Right. But that’s popular vote —,” Hostin echoed Behar, telling Haines, “It should be one vote for each person, shouldn’t it? It should be one vote for each person.”

Instead of ending the argument, Haines repeated, “I understand the spirit of why they did the electoral college,” but Hostin had heard enough and shut her down, firmly replying, “The spirit of the electoral college is that it was founded in slavery.”

But Haines continued to defend her point, saying the electoral college “was also founded with less rural areas having a voice in national elections,” as Hostin shot back, “Because the less rural areas owned a lot of slaves, and they wanted their slaves to count.”

After Haines told Hostin, “You’re proving my point. The rural vote didn’t help,” Whoopi Goldberg cut in to end the argument by dismissing the electoral college altogether: “Here’s the real truth about it: it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work now, anymore.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.