United States Vice President JD Vance’s recent appearance on The View received a strong reaction from the crowd before he even spoke a word. Vance appeared on the program earlier today to promote his new book, titled Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.

In addition to promoting his book, Vance also discussed a number of political topics when appearing on The View, including immigration, race, and more. He spoke about some recent comments that United States President Donald Trump made regarding inflation, which quickly got a strong reaction from co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar.

How did JD Vance’s The View appearance draw attention before he even spoke?

Before Vance began speaking on the program, however, he was already drawing attention in a major way from some audience members. According to Entertainment Weekly, the cohosts all stood as Vance made his way onto the set, while “some audience members were shown sitting in their seats, motionless, as others next to them applauded Vance as he greeted the cohosts.”

This isn’t the first time that some of The View’s audience has been opposed to some political guests being part of the show. Entertainment Weekly’s article recalls protestors interrupting a 2022 Ted Cruz interview, while The View audience also booed New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu in May 2023.

“No Republican will ever come back here if you’re going to boo,” Behar said at the time. Goldberg agreed, “We need to talk to people to find out what they’re thinking and are they thinking in the right way. He’s not going to be perfect, none of them are, but at least give people the opportunity to say what’s going on.”

The announcement that Vance would be appearing on The View came as a surprise to many, given the current presidential administration’s frequently hostile relationship with the journalistic media. The Federal Communications Commission, which is headed by Trump-appointed Brendan Carr, has previously alleged that The View “violated the long-standing ‘equal time’ rule about broadcast interviews, which requires that political candidates in any given race be afforded an equal amount of airtime if one is interviewed during their respective race for office.”