Joy Behar questions whether a woman can win the U.S. presidency

Joy Behar said on Thursday's episode of The View that she is not convinced a woman can win a U.S. presidential election, pointing to Donald Trump's victories over Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2024.

The discussion began after the show's hosts talked about a new poll that reportedly shows Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a leading Democratic contender for the 2028 presidential race.

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that Democratic Party leaders may try to limit the influence of progressive candidates during the primary process. She added that she believes Republican President Marco Rubio would win the 2028 election if Ocasio-Cortez became the Democratic nominee.

Behar said she likes Ocasio-Cortez but questioned whether a woman could defeat a Republican candidate. "The only time that Donald Trump ever won is when he's running against two women. When he ran against a guy, he lost," she said, referring to Joe Biden's 2020 victory over Trump.

Behar also suggested that some voters are unwilling to support a woman for president. Co-host Sara Haines disagreed, saying she did not believe gender alone would determine the outcome and argued that Clinton should have won in 2016, noting that she won the national popular vote.

The conversation later turned to whether former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, could win a presidential election. Haines said the country would not know unless it elected such a candidate, while Sunny Hostin said Democrats could not afford the risk. Behar concluded that she believes the United States is more likely to elect a gay man than a woman as president.