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“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin revisited her widely-discussed 2024 question to former Vice President Kamala Harris during an event on Monday, calling the former Democratic presidential nominee’s answer and refusal to distance herself from former President Joe Biden at the time “problematic.”
Brian Teta, the talk show’s executive producer and host of its “Behind the Table” podcast, selected the moment as Hostin’s most memorable on the show. He said it was a “seminal moment” in the 2024 election cycle.
Hostin described the question as a “gift” and said she thought Harris would have to distance herself from Biden because of his approval ratings at the time. She also said “The View” was the perfect venue to ask the question, calling the liberal show’s audience “her people.”
“I actually thought the answer was going to be, you know, ‘We had a lot of wins in this administration. I was there for those wins, but I, as a woman of color, as a child of immigrants, as I have a different lived experience, and I intend to bring that lived experience with me into the White House. I will do this. I will do that. I will do this. I will do that. I will do that.’ That was what I was expecting. I was not expecting, ‘Not a single thing comes to mind.’ And I knew honestly when she said it that it was really problematic,” Hostin said.
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Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sunny Hostin speak onstage at the 2023 ESSENCE Festival of Culture at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, La., on June 30, 2023. (Getty Images FOR ESSENCE)
The co-hosts noted that the moment was discussed in books published after the 2024 election, including Harris’ memoir, “107 Days,” and was also featured in a political ad for President Donald Trump.
In “107 Days,” Harris wrote that she had no idea she had just “pulled the pin on a hand grenade,” with her answer to Hostin’s question. She wrote that her staff was beside themselves.
“Stationed at various places around the set, my staff were beside themselves. Political operatives have an eye to see a moment, and I could kick myself for giving the other side that moment. During the commercial break, while I was having a bit of fun with some young students I’d noticed in the audience who were obviously playing hooky, offering to write notes to their teachers after the show, Opal [Vadhan] passed me a note from our team, telling me to return to that question and mention that a big difference would be that I would put a Republican in my cabinet,” she wrote in her book.
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Teta and the co-hosts said they all knew her response was going to be a problem.
Co-host Ana Navarro said Harris’ staff “ran” because staff members knew immediately that Harris needed to return to the question and address her answer.
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During the show on Friday, both Navarro and Haines said they wouldn’t tell Harris not to run, but questioned if she would be the best option for the Democratic Party.
“If the Democrats want to win, I don’t think she’s the right candidate because I think the Democrats have been screaming for new energy. They’ve been saying we need something new to combat this. This would be her third time on this ballot. From the first time when she didn’t … she was out really early when she ran, and then the time with Biden, this would be the third time. People are clamoring for fresh energy, and there’s a lot of candidates,” Haines said.
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Then-Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is seen in the ABC studio during a break in the taping of “The View” in New York City on Oct. 8, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
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Co-host Joy Behar has said on several occasions that she doesn’t think the U.S. would elect a woman as president, citing Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s losses to Trump. She has said the 2028 Democratic presidential nominee should be a man if the party wants to win.
Hostin questioned whether president would be the right position for Harris during an April episode of “The View” and said she wished Harris had pursued a run for California governor.
“This goes right to the heart of what the Media Research Center has been arguing to the FCC about for months now. The View knowingly operates as a propaganda arm for the Democratic Party and for Democratic candidates,” NewsBusters associate editor Nicholas Fondacaro told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Sunny openly admitted that her intention with the question was to help Kamala with what she felt was a layup question that would lead to a slam-dunk answer. This incident was an abuse of ABC’s privileged access to the public broadcast spectrum.”