Oh how quickly folks in the liberal media forget their own misdeeds when it’s time to fling mud at the other side. That hypocrisy was again on full display during the Friday edition of ABC’s The View, when cloudy co-host Sunny Hostin lashed out at U.S. Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi. Hostin called Bondi an “election denier” when Trump was her client in 2020, that’s despite the fact that for six years, Hostin had maintained that President-elect Trump was an “illegitimate president” after his 2016 victory.
“I agree with you, Alyssa [Farah Griffin], [Matt Gaetz] would have been a very dangerous pick for the Department of Justice. But his new pick, Trump's new pick, Pam Bondi. I believe she's a dangerous pick, as well,” Hostin proclaimed. “She supported Trump's false election claims. She was involved the efforts to overturn the results.”
Her evidence? Video of Bondi defending Trump’s candidacy the first two days after the election when many states had not finalized their vote counts. “We are thrilled to have won Pennsylvania with 87 percent of the vote in and we're up almost 400,000 votes. So we're thrilled,” Bondi said in a soundbite The View played from November 4, the day after the election. The other soundbite was from November 5.
Anti-Trumper Ana Navarro actually stuck up for Bondi, drawing on their years of friendship and nights at the bar:
I have known Pam Bondi for many, many, many years. I will tell you, I don't want to ruin her reputation with MAGA people but Pam Bondi and I hung out a lot when she was attorney general of Florida and she would come to Miami. We drank a lot together. I liked her a lot. She's not a kook. What's a lite election denialism between friends when at least – Listen, everything in life is relative.
“Election denialism is a very big deal, Ana,” Hostin chided.
And that’s where the hypocrisy comes in.
As NewsBusters reported back in September of 2022, Hostin finally apologized for denying the results of the 2016 election, which she suggested was stolen by Trump and Russia, for which she called Trump an “illegitimate president.”
In response to her apology at the time, moderator Whoopi Goldberg and co-host Joy Behar were up in arms and told her she didn’t have to and that she was in the right from the beginning:
HOSTIN: I should not have said that. He was not an illegitimate president.
GOLDBERG: But that's how you felt! You had every right to say it!
(…)
BEHAR: You were not wrong.
They said this wall also defending White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s 2016 election denialism. Hostin’s history of election denialism was not brought up by any of the cast members on Friday.
It’s [D]ifferent when they do it.
“Everything in life is relative. There is no accusation of sexual harassment or assault against her. There’s no accusation of sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old,” Navarro continued to defend Bondi. “She hasn't beheaded a whale. She hasn’t stabbed a dead bear cub. I mean, my God.”
Hostin accused Navarro and pretend independent Sara Haines of “minimizing” Bondi’s transgressions because they would take her over Gaetz. “I would take the dead bear cub over Matt Gaetz,” Navarro quipped.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
November 22, 2024
11:09:15 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: Let me say this, we're all thrilled that Matt Gaetz – I agree with you, Alyssa, he would have been a very dangerous pick for the Department of Justice. But his new pick, Trump's new pick, Pam Bondi. I believe she's a dangerous pick, as well, because she is -- during her -- she supported Trump's false election claims. She was involved the efforts to overturn the results. And so, that is now the person that's going to be chief law enforcement –
[Crosstalk]
JOY BEHAR: But she's on TV, that’s the primary prerequisite
[Crosstalk]
ANA NAVARRO: I have known Pam Bondi for many, many, many years. I will tell you, I don't want to ruin her reputation with MAGA people but Pam Bondi and I hung out a lot when she was attorney general of Florida and she would come to Miami. We drank a lot together. I liked her a lot. She's not a kook. What's a lite election denialism between friends when at least – Listen, everything in life is relative.
HOSTIN: Election denialism is a very big deal, Ana.
[Crosstalk]
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: Sunny, we have to take the wins where we can find them.
NAVARRO: Can I continue saying this? Everything in life is relative. There is no accusation of sexual harassment or assault against her. There’s no accusation of sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old.
BEHAR: She is a woman.
FARAH GRIFFIN: She’s also qualified. She was a the Florida attorney general.
HOSTIN: There’s also accusations –
[Crosstalk]
BEHAR: One at a time. [Claps her hands to get their attention]
NAVARRO: She hasn't beheaded a whale. She hasn’t stabbed a dead bear cub. I mean, my God.
HOSTIN: You can't minimize some of the things that she has done and I think we have a clip of some of her former comments. Why don’t we take a look.
[Cuts to video]
PAM BONDI (as Donald Trump’s lawyer) (November 4, 2020): We are thrilled to have won Pennsylvania with 87 percent of the vote in and we're up almost 400,000 votes. So we're thrilled.
[Transition]
(November 5, 2020): We do have evidence of cheating. [Transition] We are not going anywhere until they declare that we won Pennsylvania. [Transition] These fake ballots that are coming in late. And back to observation, they're not letting us watch the process
STEVE DOOCY: Pam, did you just say fake ballots?
BONDI: There could be. That's the problem.
[Cuts back to live]
[Laughter]
HOSTIN: So, I don't want -- I don't think we need to minimize someone like that being who is supposed to be the people's attorney. She's going to be Trump's attorney.
[Crosstalk]
SARA HAINES: I would still take her over Matt Gaetz.
HOSTIN: You can take her over Matt Gaetz, but you cannot minimize –
HAINES: I'm not minimizing.
NAVARRO: I would take the dead bear cub over Matt Gaetz.
BEHAR: Robert Kennedy would also.
(…)
