Following the death of former football player and murderer O.J. Simpson, the dumb and racially charged hot takes from the cast of ABC’s The View were inevitable. Of course, it was staunchly racist and anti-Semitic co-host, Sunny Hostin (the descendant of slave owners) who dredged up the unfounded racial aspects of the case applied by race-hustlers. She even argued that Simpson’s acquittal was fine since, collectively, cops have killed more people than he did.
According to Hostin, the case “was less about his guilt or innocence” in the brutal murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, but “rather about the system and how the system treated African Americans and continues to treat African Americans in this country.”
Despite the cases not being related in the slightest, Hostin insisted that a full “context” recounting of Simpson’s trial must include what happened to Rodney King years earlier. “You have to remember in putting it into context the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King almost to death in front of the world's eyes was in 1992. This happened in 1994,” she said.
Hostin argued that for the black community, which she identified with, the Simpson trial “was less about whether or not O.J. did it” and more about using it as a stand-in for race relations in America. She went on to admit that Simpson may have “got away with it,” but “police officers have killed many more people than O.J. Simpson.”
The race card was also played by faux conservative Ana Navarro, who recalled following the case as a law school student, saying: “It was the first time I was confronted in my lifetime with the racial divides and the painful racial gaps in America.”
Navarro said she spoke with former CNN host Don Lemon about Simpson’s death and trial, and he seemed to agree with Hostin’s take. “And I do think, Don Lemon was saying to me yesterday, it was not about guilt or innocence, it was about race. It was so much about race,” she recounted.
Co-host Sara Haines injected a bit of sanity into the discussion by refocusing the conversation on to Simpson’s two victims:
HAINES: There were innocent people involved here and I'd like to take a moment them. Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were brutally killed and murdered. And I think that the legal system failed Nicole over and over again. She had called 911 nine times, the crap beaten out of her, bloody in bushes and always released her domestic abuser.
BEHAR: Who was O.J.
HAINES: Yeah. I just want to not say his name like everyone is because I think the people we need to be focused on are Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman who were more than victims in this. She had kids. She was a beloved woman that missed out on major parts of her life. The Goldman family still longs for their son who was funny, kind, and outgoing.
“For whatever went on in the mess of this, my heart continues to go out for those families who lived beyond and without their loved ones,” she said.
The silence from Hostin was deafening.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
April 12, 2024
11:03:00 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: You know, I think it was less about his guilt or innocence and rather about the system and how the system treated African Americans, and continues to treat African Americans in this country.
You have to remember in putting it into context the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King almost to death in front of the world's eyes was in 1992. This happened in 1994. And I think for the black community, it was less about whether or not O.J. did it, because I think even today you'll go to, you know, barber shops and beauty salons and people will say “he did it,” but he got away with it and the police officers, you know, police officers have killed many more people than O.J. Simpson.
JOY BEHAR: Probably I think they didn't trust that the police did not plant evidence because --
HOSTIN: Well, Mark Furman said on the witness stand, “I never used a racial slur.”
By the way, people, when a lawyer in cross-examination in a courtroom says, “have you ever done this?” they know that you did it.
[Laughter]
Right? And so then they come up with tapes and he's using the "N" word like Christmas.
BEHAR: But don't you think some of the reason he got away with it was because he was famous not just that he was black?
ANA NAVARRO: There were so many reasons. The prosecution had a lot of failures. And, yes, I think part of the reason that it's so fascinating. Look, it's fascinating because it was O.J. Simpson. He was a celebrity, he was rich, he was a successful athlete, we all knew who he was, and he was in car rental company commercials. But it's one of these instances in American history where if you're of a certain age, everybody remembers where you were the day that the verdict was read.
HOSTIN: And when the Bronco chase was happening.
NAVARRO: Everything.
BEHAR: Well, it was covered extensively.
NAVARRO: Like with 9/11, with the JFK death, with Challenger explosion.
HOSTIN: Michael Jackson’s death.
NAVARRO: It reaches that level because I think it's had such cultural significance. It launched so many careers. It changed the way we cover courts.
HOSTIN: Camera were in the courtroom.
NAVARRO: For me it was the first time and I know it sounds naive to a lot of people but I grew up in Miami in a bubble. I went to a school that was 98 percent Latina immigrant Catholic girls. It was the first time I was confronted in my lifetime with the racial divides and the painful racial gaps in America.
And I remember watching it. I remember I was at the student union in law school and the black students were on side and the white – non-blacks were on the other side. The black students erupted into cheers, the white -- everybody else was with jaws agape, and it's something that still is happening in so many cases.
And I do think, Don Lemon was saying to me yesterday, it was not about guilt or innocence, it was about race. It was so much about race.
SARA HAINES: There were innocent people involved here and I'd like to take a moment them. Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were brutally killed and murdered. And I think that the legal system failed Nicole over and over again. She had called 911 nine times, the crap beaten out of her, bloody in bushes and always released her domestic abuser.
BEHAR: Who was O.J.
HAINES: Yeah. I just want to not say his name like everyone is because I think the people we need to be focused on are Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman who were more than victims in this. She had kids. She was a beloved woman that missed out on major parts of her life. The Goldman family still longs for their son who was funny, kind, and outgoing.
BEHAR: He was really an innocent bystander.
HAINES: They both were innocent.
BEHAR: She was not a bystander, but –
HAINES: For whatever went on in the mess of this, my heart continues to go out for those families who lived beyond and without their loved ones.
(…)
