The View stars slam Janet Jackson for 'carelessly' spreading 'misinformation' over Kamala Harris' race

The View's Hot Topics table has (mostly) flamed Janet Jackson with their feedback on the pop icon's controversial comments about Vice President Kamala Harris' race.

Days after The Guardian published an interview in which Jackson said she heard Harris is "not Black," the cohosts reacted with shock over the recording artist's statements.

"Well, she hasn't said she made a mistake," Ana Navarro said after Whoopi Goldberg asked the panelists about the moment, adding that Jackson has the "right to endorse, support, or not support" whoever she wants in the election, but took aim at the legend's parroting of questionable claims.

"What she did was spread misinformation, I think it's irresponsible when you have a platform the way Janet Jackson does, to use that platform carelessly to spread misinformation based on a racist allegation by Donald Trump. It was Donald Trump who tried to say Kamala Harris just turned Black," Navarro said, referencing Trump's widely derided accusation in July that Harris — who is of Black and Indian descent — "became a Black person" to suit her political ambitions.

Navarro then paused to comment on a photo of Harris and her father, which flashed onscreen: "For all of you who need, or for Ms. Jackson, if you're nasty, here's the damn picture."

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who previously worked for VP Mike Pence and Donald Trump's White House communications team,

"We forget that we live in information silos. This is so different from how the media was even 10 years ago," Griffin observed, warning viewers of social media algorithms monetizing their own preferences and withholding news that contradicts individuals' perspectives. "My guess is she's not looking at great sources of media."

Sara Haines said that Jackson's comments reflect a violation of "journalism 101, or just education 101, which is you never single-source a story," referencing Jackson's assertion to The Guardian that she hadn't "watched the news in a few days" and that she was "told that they discovered [Harris'] father was white."

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Legal expert Sunny Hostin brought up her own multiracial identity when asserting that she doesn't feel Harris, who previously refused to address Trump's comments about her race during an August interview with CNN, should acknowledge Jackson's observations, either.

"Regardless of whether Janet Jackson thinks she's Black, white, or Indian, the very fact that she's in the room deconstructs, in my view, the alleged societal norms we've seen in the nearly 250 years of this country of what a presidential candidate looks like. I think that's what matters most, and I think that when you're biracial or multiracial, you do get to identify yourself in any way you choose to identify yourself," Hostin added. "She identified herself as a Black woman, she has also said that her mother is Asian. She didn't just become Black. It's unfortunate that Janet Jackson, an icon, admittedly said, 'I don't know, I haven't been reading the news these past few days.' I don't know if it comes from misinformation, I don't know if it comes from a lack of information, all I know is I don't want to give it this much air."

Before the Hot Topics discussion ended, Goldberg jumped back in to ask the audience to go easy on their criticism of the performer.

"Janet Jackson is not a political animal. She's a musician, her life is doing this, and she's mourning her brother," Goldberg said, nodding to the Sept. 16 announcement that Tito Jackson, founding Jackson 5 member, had died at age 70. "I sometimes have said stuff and I was wrong. But people want you to say something right away. When people are coming at you saying you're dumb, you don't want to answer people. And it is a pain in the butt, I have to tell you. Sometimes people get it wrong and they're wrong, they made a mistake, they were wrong, it happens. Anybody who says it doesn't happen to every one of us, multiracial or not, we all do it. So, okay, a little grace for the girl, alright?"

Jackson's interview with The Guardian, drew widespread criticism as well as comparisons to Trump's aforementioned appearance earlier this year at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, where he claimed that Harris "was Indian all the way" in her early career. “Well, you know what they supposedly said?” Jackson asked the Guardian journalist in her discussion. “She’s not black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Jackson for comment on both The View cohosts' reactions to her Guardian interview as well as to reports that one of the singer's staffers was fired for allegedly releasing an unauthorized statement about Jackson's quotes on Harris. However, separately, EW has learned through a source that the person who released a statement on behalf of Jackson was never employed by the pop star.

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/PT on ABC.