Two co-hosts of “The View,” Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin, were abruptly pulled from the set on live television on Friday morning after testing positive for the coronavirus, minutes ahead of a live in-studio interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Joy Behar (another co-host) announced that they had been diagnosed with breakthrough cases, despite having been fully vaccinated. While none of the hosts were dressed in masks, the studio audience was all covered.
“Ana and Sunny, at the last minute, we realized they tested positive for Covid,” Ms. Behar said. Ms. Harris, who was preparing for her entrance onstage, appeared later on the program via a remote link from another area. However, her appearance was cut short.
“I know they’re fine, but it really does speak to the fact that they’re vaccinated and vaccines really make all the difference, because otherwise we’d be concerned about hospitalization and worse,” Ms. Harris stated that she was speaking from a remote location with what appeared to an iPhone headphone in her ear.
After the positive cases were revealed, Sara Haines and Ms. Behar were the last hosts on the set. Whoopi Goldberg was absent on Friday. While the Secret Service tried and found a way for Ms. Harris safely to participate in the interview, they answered questions from the audience.
The announcement of the positive cases came minutes after the hosts had been discussing the importance of getting vaccinated and after they had promoted Ms. Harris’s appearance as her first “in-studio” interview since taking office.
Ms. Harris’s appearance on “The View” had long been planned and was one of only a handful of television interviews she has participated in since taking office. The timing of the appearance was not right for a vice-president whose portfolio covers immigration issues but who had hoped that she could use the opportunity to announce a new broadband investment which will reach more than 3,000,000 schoolchildren.
It came as the administration’s handling of Haitian migrants at the border prompted outrage among Democrats and called into question President Biden’s decision to swiftly deport thousands who had been arriving en masse at a small Texas border town.
Critics have condemned the racist tactics of Border Patrol and urged President Biden to stop flying Haitians out of the United States.
During her appearance on Friday, Ms. Harris acknowledged that the images of Border Patrol agents on horseback, some using the reins of their horses to strike at running migrants, “evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the Indigenous people of our country, has been used against African Americans during times of slavery.”
But she avoided a question about whether the administration would halt all deportation of Haitians at the Texas border and allow them to apply for asylum.
“We have to do more in supporting Haitians who are returning to the island, returning to Haiti,” Ms. Harris said. “We have got to do more to support Haiti in terms of its needs to get back up and recover, in terms of the natural disasters.”
She noted that the Haitian government was still in disarray, and in the process for rebuilding itself after the assassination. As a neighbor, “the U.S. has to help,” she said.
A spokeswoman for “The View” did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why the co-hosts received their test results only after appearing on set.