Despite being under scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission for a slew violations of ABC’s broadcast license, including for equal-time for candidates, The View continued their history of vastly lopsided liberal vs conservative guests in the run up to the 2026 midterm elections. For these very critical elections, ABC’s “bona fide news program” only allowed 1 conservative on the show to defend the Republicans, contrary to the 21 they had to support the liberal positions and bash President Trump and the GOP.“ABC has learned nothing from the FCC’s continued scrutiny," said Media Research Center President David Bozell. "The View continues to insult the intelligence of the American public by passing off pure Democratic propaganda as a ‘bona fide news program.’ With 21 anti-Republican voices and a single conservative in the two months before the midterms, ABC’s political agenda could hardly be more obvious. And ABC is hardly alone. The entire elitist media landscape deserves serious scrutiny. The Federal Communications Commission must hold ABC accountable for its abuse of the public airwaves for partisan political purposes.”Between the start of Season 30 on September 8 and Election Day, November 3, The View hosted a total of 56 guests.  Image Media Research Center  Of that number, only one, Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) was there to make the case for Republicans and defend Republican policies ahead of the midterm elections. Cruz was actually The View’s first guest of the new season, breaking their tradition of the last couple years of having a liberal Supreme Court justice join them first.On the other side of the ledger, The View invited 21 guests who were either critical of Trump or the Republican Party. Three of them Democratic politicians: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (a rumored presidential contender), Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Included on the liberal side is Senator Thom Tillis (R). While Tillis is a retiring Republican senator, he was brought on to bash Trump and his record and promote his anti-Trump book “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents.” The rest of the liberal column included leftist actors like: Maisie Williams, Ethan Hawke, Chelsea Handler, Michael Douglas, Billy Crystal, Patricia "Ms. Pat" Williams-Lee, D.L. Hughley, Chandra Wilson, Busy Philipps, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Eisa Davis, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Sophia Bush.There were other liberal figures such as: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen A. Smith, and Kara Swisher. Smith came under attack for meeting with Trump, but he didn’t defend Trump.While many of the guests in the liberal category were more than happy to promote liberal policies or take the opportunity to attack Trump and Republicans, some would actively avoid talking politics even when the cast tried to bait them.On September 29, journalist Evan Gershkovich was on the show to promote his book telling his story about being held hostage by Russia. Co-host Joy Behar tried to suggest that Trump’s clashes with the media were just like Russian dictator Vladimir Putin locking him up.When it became clear that Gershkovich wasn’t playing along with her false equivalency, Behar stepped in to make the connection anyway and promptly ended the interview:BEHAR: Seems to be the situation that these dictatorships, the first place they go is the press. [Bangs her hand on the table] We're experiencing some of that in this country right now.GERSHKOVICH: Yeah, I mean there's a part - You know, the Part 4 of the book is this sort of when I get home and I start reporting again. I want to figure out why they took me, you know, answer some of these questions, but also how the swap worked, how the negotiations went. And it was the - Trump’s second inauguration had already taken place and I was, you know, DOGE had basically --BEHAR: Well, Trump just invited Putin to go down to Miami, so they're palsy-walsy.His new memoir, This Cured Beautiful land: A Russian-American Story is available now. You can scan the QR code on your scene to purchase a copy. We'll be right back.Since Gershkovich didn’t take her bait, he was included in the non-political category.It’s easy to understand that their choices of guests are directly tied to the type of influence they want to exert on the American political system. In May 2024, Behar admitted to comedian Bill Maher that she censors herself on the show and stays quiet about Democratic Party problems as not to help Republicans in elections:BEHAR: I'm nervous about saying anything against Biden because I feel, not that I have so much power and you have some more than I do obviously, but --BILL MAHER: oh, I don't know about that.BEHAR: Are you afraid that you might influence the people who are on the fence?MAHER: I think you lose all credibility. I do. My bond with my audience has always been I don't pull a punch. My bond with my audience is you're not going to like everything I say but you know I'm saying what I really think is true.Moderator Whoopi Goldberg had previously made it clear that the show was meant to be a vector to get Democratic talking points to the public. During a March 2025, appearance on the show by sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, Goldberg argued with Smith about the Democratic Party’s efforts in messaging themselves to voters in 2024. She defended The View’s role in that effort:SMITH: [Y]ou're talking about what he's doing. But before you brought that up you brought up the message that the Democratic Party was disseminating. I'm challenging you on that. That is not what they were doing.GOLDBERG: Oh, yes, it was. I was here. We did it.Later that month, when teeing up a Hot Topics discussion about the future of the Democratic Party’s leadership and responding to comments by then-Governor Tim Walz (MN), Goldberg said: “I don't know if you can wait for somebody to step up and lead the party. [Walz] is not wrong when he says the party is us and what are we going -- what are we prepared to do?”While not included in the timeframe of this study, The View’s first post-election guest on November 4 was Texas Senator-elect James Talarico (D), whose candidacy they repeatedly told viewers to support. “Congratulations, we were thrilled with your win,” Goldberg told him.Goldberg also admitted they were "celebrating” the victories alongside Democrats, who she told “we put you in to take care of business.”In all, it’s clear that The View’s mission this cycle, as always, was to do their party to sell Democrats to the American voter.Methodology: For a guest to be counted as either liberal or conservative, they needed to express such views during their appearance on The View. If a celebrity did not discuss politics, they were not included in the count of political leanings even if they had a history of being outspoken in the past.