In the summer of 2021, the producers of “The View” cast a wide net to find their token conservative co-host after Meghan McCain’s exit. Bari Weiss — who had guest-hosted a few episodes of the panel show and was making waves with her just-launched news outlet The Free Press — wanted the job, and her then-CAA agents lobbied hard. But Weiss didn’t test well with audiences, who didn’t understand her centrist-right contrarian politics. In fact, her focus group scores were so low that she wasn’t invited back to guest host, according to insiders. Instead, Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump White House director of strategic communications, landed the gig.

The rejection turned out to be a blessing for Weiss. Instead of playing sixth fiddle on a show consumed by middle-class Resistance moms,

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