Sunny Hostin Battles Each of Her ‘View’ Co-Hosts in Tense “Defund the Police” Discussion

Sunny Hostin has proven, once again, that she’s the only true progressive on The View‘s panel. On Wednesday morning, Hostin squared off against her co-hosts in a tense discussion about “defund the police,” the slogan that served as a rallying cry in the wake of George Floyd’s death. When the former prosecutor, who is Black and Latina, insisted that President Obama was wrong to dismiss the phrase as a “snappy slogan,” her co-hosts lashed out and proceeded to whitesplain systemic racism. Biggest of all possible woofs.

After making its way through Trump’s latest election shenanigans, The View dove headfirst into Obama’s recent warnings to progressive Democrats that using terms like “defund the police” will alienate moderates and conservatives. “You know you’ve lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely you’re actually going to get the changes you want done,” the former president said on Good Morning America earlier today.

“You know, I’m always loathe to criticize President Obama because I’m such a fan, but I do think he’s wrong here,” said Hostin, who was first to speak up. “When you think about ‘defund the police,’ that’s not a term that was crowdsourced or tested in focus groups. That’s a term that was born, a rallying cry, that was born out of the over-policing of Black and brown communities, born out of the frustrating of seeing Black and brown men and women killed in the streets by police officers.”

Hostin went on to explain, “for the hundredth time,” that “defund the police” means “reimagining policing in this country to address systemic racism” rather than abolishing the police, as conservatives have falsely argued. “I don’t think you should allow people to co-opt the movement and tell protestors what language they should use,” she said. “President Obama was a community organizer, and I really think he knows better.”

Moderate Democrats like Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, and Sara Haines simply couldn’t stand Hostin’s criticism of Obama. “What he’s trying to say is that how people perceived that message and how it was carried through was the problem,” said Goldberg. “Be aware of how you’re presenting yourself because people do grab it and run.”

Behar then chimed in to say that “defund the police” is a bad slogan because it’s “not an accurate statement” in the way that “give me liberty or give me death” is (yes, this was the example she used). “They need to get a slogan that does not make people nuts, and ‘defund the police’ scared this country, and that’s why so many Democrats lost,” she said. “It’s not working!”

After the commercial break, Haines joined Team Whoopi & Joy and argued that “defund the police” doesn’t “meet people where they are,” as Obama has often said. “Sunny, I understand you’re talking about not defining a movement,” said Haines. “I understand that I’m not part of this active conversation, but from the outside, if you look at it as trying to gain people that don’t understand it or don’t get it — when the term confuses people–”

“Why, Sara, do you think you’re not part of this conversation?” asked Hostin, adding that her co-host is “against the over-policing of Black and brown communities, as well.” The question sent Haines into something of a tailspin, and she rushed to explain that she “agrees with the endgame,” but feels that “selling a movement with a slogan that’s confusing” and controversial is ineffective.

“Uh, the term ‘abolishing slavery’ wasn’t received well. The term ‘civil rights,’ that term also wasn’t received well,” said Hostin, putting Haines on blast. “These aren’t political slogans, Sara, and you know that. These are rallying cries! They’re policy demands!”

The discussion only got worse from there. “To say ‘Black lives matter’ is true. To say ‘defund the police’ is not completely true!” said Behar. “Black Lives Matter is a true story, a true fact. Defunding the police is vague!”

Finally, Goldberg stepped in to end viewers’ misery, but not before getting in one final shot at Hostin’s argument. “If we were the only ones telling the story, you would be absolutely right. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works,” she told her co-host. “Someone gets something that says ‘defund the police,’ and the narrative becomes, ‘They want to get rid of police departments,’ and someone runs with that. It turns into something that it isn’t, and you are stuck explaining and explaining. Lots of people lost because of that. Because people took it out of context and didn’t explain what it meant.”

That isn’t exactly true, but sure, Whoopi, go off.

Watch a portion of The View‘s “defund the police” debate above.

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