On Friday’s (September 19) edition of The View, the cohosts responded to yet another new revelation from Kamala Harris‘ new memoir about her ultra-short presidential run, 107 Days. This time, the panelists reviewed reports that Harris initially wanted to select Pete Buttigieg as her running mate, rather than Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, but she thought it would be unrealistic to expect Americans to choose a Black woman and a gay man at the same time.

“This is my problem with identity politics,” Sara Haines said. “Kamala Harris is a Black woman, and she’s a lot of other things. Pete Buttigieg is a gay man, and he’s a lot of other things. When I look at these people, I don’t look and say, ‘Well, there’s a Black woman, there’s a gay man, end of story.’” She went on to explain why she would’ve been in favor of bringing the then-Secretary of Transportation on board. “Pete Buttigieg is one of my favorites because he captivates me every time he talks. He speaks across the aisle…. When he talks on Fox — he’s one of the only people that regularly go on there — he handles questions like a boss, and he is changing hearts and minds.”

She went on to point out that the late Senator John McCain, who ran against Barack Obama in 2008, originally wanted to select Joe Lieberman as his running mate instead of Sarah Palin — a decision that didn’t work out so well for him. “He thought, ‘I can’t do that, because this is a Jewish man from Connecticut,’ so he went with Sarah Palin, and that didn’t work out the way he planned… He was probably going for the woman card, and that’s why I think reducing people to one part of them is missing the entire gift of a human.”

Ana Navarro, who worked on the McCain campaign, had a personal tidbit to share on that note, saying, “I remember him telling me that he felt he needed a wow factor.”

“Well, he got the wow,” Haines responded, earning laughs. “Maybe not the wow he was looking for.”

Navarro then continued, “But he said that, you know, she was going to be the first female on a Republican ticket. And so he felt he had a wow factor to counteract the fact that it was he was running against Barack Obama, who was the first African American running for president. And it made me sad.” She then went on to note that McCain later wrote of his regrets in ignoring his own gut in the VP pick and compared that to Harris’ experience. “I wish Kamala had ignored it. Because if you’re going to lose — if you’re going to run and give it your all, and you’re going to lose, lose on your own terms. If there’s anything that Donald Trump has taught the Democrats, it’s just go out there and be whatever you want. The Democrats are very cautious, and it doesn’t work.”

“I, too, wish that the vice president had gone with her gut because I think Pete Buttigieg could have been a game changer,” Sunny Hostin then chimed in. “But I also know through my lived experience as a Black woman in this country that that is what people see first, when they see you… They define me by that, and that is, unfortunately, a fact of life.”

When Joy Behar tried to point out that Obama was elected twice, as a Black man, Hostin countered with, “But not a Black woman, okay? Hillary Clinton arguably was the most qualified candidate for the presidency that we’ve had, perhaps. And they couldn’t get past that. I believe that that was a reason.”

“I think the problem is female,” Behar offered.

“Black and female? Good luck,” Hostin concluded.

Alyssa Farah Griffin‘s perspective on the Harris tidbit was that, while she thinks the best choice would’ve been Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for electoral math reasons, Buttigieg would’ve been a better choice than Walz. “Due respect to Tim Walz, nice guy. Seemed like a really decent guy. We interviewed him. But what they were doing is they were trying to pander to what they think white male voters wanted. And it turns out, just kind of being a football coach who wears camo every now and then wasn’t enough. So having a guy like Buttigieg who can debate on Fox News with Republicans, go toe to toe with Andrew Schulz, people see him as a lot more, like, ‘That guy could be president.’”

“If we keep saying to people, ‘We can’t, we won’t, we never will,’ we never would’ve had President Obama twice,” Haines added.

Chances are, this discussion will continue next week because Harris will be returning to The View for the first time since the election on Tuesday, September 23.

The View, Weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC