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It played out like a dramatic scene from a movie. Two hosts from the daytime talk show The View were escorted off set moments before they were scheduled to interview Vice President Kamala Harris. Co-hosts Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) and couldn’t proceed with the interview. Now, Harris has expressed her frustration with how the entire ordeal went down.

Vice President Kamala Harris as a guest on 'The View' with Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin
Vice President Kamala Harris in a 2019 episode of ‘The View’ | Photo by Lorenzo Bevilaqua/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris only learned of the positive coronavirus tests moments before her interview

Hosts of The View receive at least twice a week, according to the folks at CNN. Other protocols are put into place to keep co-hosts Joy Behar, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin, and Sara Haines safe from the virus. This includes the spacing of chairs and an oversized table as well as the weekly coronavirus tests. Vice President Harris’ office also required a negative PCR test within 24 hours of her appearance. However, this wasn’t enough to avoid the recent fiasco.

ABC has been billing the interview with Ms. Harris as her first in-studio interview since she’s taken office. Before the Vice President was set to take the stage, producers pulled Navarro and Hostin from the set. The two women had just been notified of their positive status through their earpieces, but Behar wasn’t aware of what was going on.

“OK, we’re back, there seems to be something happening here that I’m not 100 percent aware of,” a confused Behar said, looking around to see if her co-hosts were aware of the issue at hand, “Can someone please apprise me of the situation?”

A representative of ‘The View’ may not have been forthcoming with the coronavirus test results

Due to Harris’ requirements regarding the expedited test results, a representative of The View contacted Harris’ team the night before the interview and gave the go-ahead for the interview. Now, according to CNN, that person wasn’t upfront with the information, and this has left the Vice President “deeply concerned.”

The View’s spokesperson declined to comment on the incident. Sources say ABC News President Kim Goodwin attended the taping and was mortified by the entire situation. The Vice President’s team has not made any comments regarding the incident.

Related

‘The View’: Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin Forced to Walk out Live Show After Testing Positive for COVID-19

Executive producer of ‘The View’ Brian Teta addressed the on-camera disaster in the following episode

The show went on, however. After Behar and Haines did the best they could but awkwardly bumbled through the rest of the episode by taking questions from the audience, Vice President Harris did appear in a brief virtual interview that lasted about 10 minutes.

In Monday’s episode executive producer of The View addressed the situation on-air. “That led to some really awkward television that I’d like to have back if I could,” said Teta.

Now, Navarro and Hostin both claim the results from their coronavirus tests were false positives. Behar and Haines received numerous tests over the weekend, and all results were negative. NPR reports that Hostin’s husband, a surgeon, was pulled out of surgery, and her kids were pulled from school, but all have tested negative since. 

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