Alyssa Farah Griffin Shares A Major Personal Milestone
The View: Behind the Table
Alyssa Farah Griffin discusses her recent achievement of obtaining a learner's permit after a decade without a license and provides an emotional
Key takeaways
- Alyssa Farah Griffin recently passed her New York learner's permit test after being without a license for over ten years.
- Baby Justin is recovering well following surgery to correct a condition where his skull was fusing prematurely.
- Griffin criticizes President Trump's UN speech for failing to provide a clear strategy regarding Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.
- The meeting between Trump and Mayor Mamdani is viewed as potentially undermining Republican midterm messaging against Democratic socialists.
- Griffin discusses the recent White House ban on CNN, MSNBC, and Politico, noting that most critical reporting actually comes from within the administration.
Main topics
- Driver's permit milestone
- Baby Justin's surgery recovery
- Trump's UN General Assembly speech
Notable quotes
I had more testing anxiety for that... than like performing at the highest levels in my career.
Conclusion
The episode provides a blend of intimate family updates and high-stake
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:00) Early morning on a Manhattan sidewalk, a shooting caught on surveillance video. Speaker 1 (0:05) It was an assassination-style killing, and everybody saw it. Speaker 3 (0:10) A new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside this captivating case. I'm ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmeyer. Listen to Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (0:28) All right, it is Wednesday, September 23rd. I am here with Alyssa Farrah Griffin. Hello, Brian Speaker 1 (0:33) Tata. Hello, Alyssa. Speaker 2 (0:47) Let's start with the breaking news. For people who don't know this, for a long time, you don't have a driver's license. Speaker 1 (0:54) Breaking news. Congratulate me. I am a learner's permit holder in the state of New York. Congratulations. Speaker 2 (1:00) This is very exciting. Speaker 1 (1:02) Okay. This, I'm not joking, has been the biggest source of tension in my marriage. So I haven't held a driver's license in more than 10 years because I lived in Washington, D.C. I love public transportation. I took the metro everywhere, Speaker 2 (1:14) took Speaker 1 (1:14) Ubers if I needed. And the reason it happened was kind of random. I had a license. My wallet got stolen right off my wrist. And when I went to replace it, to renew it, they said I had to retake the test because it had been a certain number of years since I had held it or whatever. And I was like, well, I don't drive a car. I don't have one. So I just got an ID card. So that's what I used. And I have like a passport is identification. Speaker 1 (1:37) served me fine when I lived in New York City and DC. Then we moved to the suburbs. A whole different thing. And Speaker 2 (1:43) suddenly Speaker 1 (1:43) it's like the gossip on the streets. Like, why doesn't she have a driver's license? Like, it might be something scandalous. And also I have a child now. I was going to say, because that's when Speaker 2 (1:50) you need to be able to get, yeah. To be able to take my boy places. Speaker 1 (1:53) So finally I studied up. I got my learner's permit yesterday. And it's, my husband literally said, when I said I passed the test, I got my permit. He's like, that's the sexiest thing you've said to me in years. Speaker 2 (2:03) Well, so I'm fascinated though, because why do you have to get a learner's permit if you at one point did have a- license? I Speaker 1 (2:07) guess because it's a different state and it's been over a decade. Oh, wow. So Speaker 2 (2:11) I Speaker 1 (2:11) basically have to have it take a certain number of driving Speaker 2 (2:13) classes. So you had it when you were like 16, 17? Yeah, I had Speaker 1 (2:16) my license till I was probably 22, I want to say. I've driven solo from like DC to Florida multiple times. I'm actually like a good driver. I just haven't driven in years. All Speaker 2 (2:26) right. So now I have Speaker 1 (2:27) no idea if I'm still a good driver, but we're going Speaker 2 (2:29) to find out. This is exciting. All right. So you, what, what does the test mean? Do you have to like, what do you have to do? It's Speaker 1 (2:35) just like the road signs with your daughters have probably done this recently. Yeah. I'm not joking. The hardest question was the first one, which was a practice question. How old are you? And it displays multiple options. Cause I'm, I was like, am I 36 or 37? Then the rest are like, you know, what the yield sign is and that kind of thing. But I swear, I had more testing anxiety for that, like seven minutes of taking that test than like performing at the highest levels in my career. Speaker 2 (3:03) So now you're going to have to take a driver's test. Speaker 1 (3:06) With an adult. Yes. And Speaker 2 (3:07) you can drive with adults. I can drive Speaker 1 (3:09) with Justin now. So we're gonna do some driving this weekend. But I'm going to literally be going around my neighborhood where I have a lot of friends with like a student driver sign on the car with some, you know, nice gentleman teaching a mid 30s woman. I Speaker 2 (3:21) really want to have the host take you out driving. I think that's I think. like sitting with each of them one by one Speaker 1 (3:26) would Speaker 2 (3:27) be hysterical joy Speaker 1 (3:28) would hate it watching me parallel park i think Speaker 2 (3:30) i think joy not the best driver i don't want to give anything away there but i feel like steve Speaker 1 (3:34) might do the majority yes and then Speaker 2 (3:36) uh she's Speaker 1 (3:37) a city gal though you just don't need to well i guess we'll be drives um yeah Speaker 2 (3:41) yeah and then uh the rest of them i mean i think like i think sunny would be very intense i think sarah would be Well-intentioned, but... But it's Speaker 1 (3:48) probably nervous. I can see Speaker 2 (3:49) her Speaker 1 (3:49) being a very nervous passenger. All right. I have a lot of Speaker 2 (3:52) ideas for this now. That'll be fun. Speaking of baby Justin, you shared a very cute photo of Justin before church. Yes. Which... Going Speaker 1 (4:03) to church is our new favorite family routine because he's like well enough behaved that we can keep him in like half the service. Speaker 2 (4:09) You haven't had Speaker 1 (4:09) to walk out Speaker 2 (4:09) yet? Oh, no, I Speaker 1 (4:10) do. We make it through the hymns. He literally tries to sing along. He goes, uh... Speaker 1 (4:16) Oh my gosh. But then when the sermon starts, I take him to the kid's library and we watch on a live stream and like read books or whatever. But yeah, I hadn't shared any photos yet of him in his helmet. I had mentioned he was in a helmet following his surgery. But once I had said that publicly, I was like, I want to start showing more. And again, I'm doing the thing where covering his little face. It's my comfort level. Like if it was just our audience, just view fans, I'd show them everything. But there's... people out there who aren't nice and there's people out there who steal images and there's AI and all that. So I'm wanting to protect his identity for the time being now. But the helmet he has, so I never really explained quite what he had. He had to have cranial facial surgery, which is performed by a neurosurgeon. It's actually surgery on the skull. And it's a condition that I would say isn't. rare, but it's not common. We're basically the skull can fuse together prematurely. So what can happen is the brain can grow into it and it can cause both physical, you know, issues, but also developmental. I had an incredible pediatrician who spotted it. And I think that's so remarkable that she saw just like a slight inconsistency in his head and said, you need to go see a neurosurgeon soon, because if you do it. At three months, it's a less invasive surgery and you have time to correct it before it could be more significant and harder for him to heal from. So terrifying as a new parent, but like this lesson that I've had to learn, which is trust your partner, but also trust your community. Like I think that doctors and nurses are absolute angels. And to me in the scariest moment of my life. Knowing he was going under when he's this little boy, knowing the biggest risk for the surgery is actually not the outcome. It's blood loss during the surgery. And having