'I Was in That One': The View’s New Guest Co-Host Seemingly Lies About Her Military Service

Nicholas Fondacaro
March 9th, 2026 4:16 PM

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After having true conservative guest co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck wipe the floor with the cast last week, ABC’s The View needed to bring on yet another anti-Trump “Republican” for balance out the rest of the anti-Trump ladies. This time they trotted out “comedian” Sheryl Underwood, who wasted no time trying to exploit her past military service to attack Trump over the Iran strikes by citing how she was deployed during the First Gulf War. But a NewsBusters investigation discovered disturbing inconsistences that pointed to possible stolen valor.

At the top of the show, while still being introduced by moderator Whoopi Goldberg, Underwood made it clear that it was her mission to target President Trump: “…they need somebody to say ‘that's not what we should be doing!’”

While falsely claiming Trump never mentioned the threat of Iran on the campaign trail, it was obvious Underwood planned to exploit her military service as a cudgel against the strikes. The View even put up a photo of her in her Air Force uniform from the early 80s. She even suggested that Trump needed to be impeached over the strikes, claiming they were “unlawful”:

UNDERWOOD: That's me in the air force reserve.

Why are we doing it? And I do believe when they say you should not follow an unlawful order! Why is this not impeachable?! And where are the politicians to say this dude don't have it all the way together! He cannot be the commander-in-chief!

HOSTIN: And thank you for your service!

UNDERWOOD: Thank you.

 

 

Without evidence, Underwood also claimed that members of the U.S. military didn’t trust Trump as their commander-in-chief and argued that America needed to make a law that presidents needed military experience:

We want to know why and we want to hear it from someone who we feel we can follow into battle. We don't want to hear it from somebody that's a TV personality who may have limited experience. I think this country is going to have to go back to the issues that we have, maybe the commander-in-chief would have to have some military experience, and understand that your order leads us into something that could reverberate around the world.

According to a Pew Research report from the 2024 election, they found that military veterans supported Trump by a wide margin 61-37 percent vs then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump held similar margins against Joe Biden and Hilary Clinton. So, Underwood’s suggestion was a lie.

 

 

“I'm not against the president. I'm against the person who is in the office right now that does not seem to care about what his actions cause!” Underwood shouted at one point.

When discussing weapons of mass destruction, Underwood declared “I was in that one” when seemingly talking about the First Gulf War; even miming (pictured above) how to put on a MOPP (mission-oriented protective posture) gear that was in use during that time because of the concern Iraq would use chemical weapons:

But we know what we sold them when you were on our side and we gave you weapons. That's why -- because I was in that one and we thought we were -- I had to put on that chem warfare, everybody in the military know it was in pieces and you had to put on the head first and blow it out and then put on pants. All military people know what I just said.

 

 

But a NewsBusters investigation discovered that Underwood wasn’t deployed during the First Gulf War, in fact it appeared as though she was out the military long forehand.

According to a DoW webpage highlighting Underwood's service, she "enlisted in the Air Force as a field medic in 1981" and was only "deployed in support of several exercises that included two Exercise Reforgers [sic] in West Germany and Team Spirit in South Korea."

The website also notes that she was out and competing in comedy contests by 1989, the year before the First Gulf War started (August 2, 1990): "She first became noticed to the public as the first female finalist in 1989's 'Miller Lite Comedy Search.'"

ABC did not respond to NewsBusters’ request for comment.

Elsewhere in their conversation, Underwood teamed up with Goldberg and co-host Sunny Hostin to depict America’ military as inept and incapable of fighting and winning against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (Click “expand”):

HOSTIN: You know, he's saying well maybe -- he said on the airplane, ‘maybe we will have boots on the ground.’ Our military we are the biggest, the best trained military in the world, but you're going to be fighting in Iran's backyard. That is guerrilla fighting! That is a street fight!

UNDERWOOD: Yes.

HOSTIN: Our soldiers, many of them will not come home. Am I correct that that is a different type of fighting?

UNDERWOOD: And would they adhere to the Geneva convention?

HOSTIN: They won't!

(…)

GOLDBERG: Listen. Basically we are sending people in to lose their lives.

 

 

Nearing the end of the segment, Goldberg proclaimed that America should NOT have struck back against Al-Qaeda after 9/11 and decried that Trump wasn’t putting his kids on the frontline to fight Iran, getting agreement from Underwood:

GOLDBERG: Because we’ve seen how fighting goes. We knew we shouldn't have gone into Afghanistan. We knew that, and they decided to do it anyway. So, now we are in the same position where someone who doesn't seem to care that human beings are being sent to war, that people's sons and daughters. His kids are not going!

UNDERWOOD: No. No. No. No.

 

 

America has an all-volunteer military and it’s the best in the world.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

ABC’s The View
March 9, 2026
11:02:27 a.m. Eastern

(…)

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Joining us at the table this week, as a guest co-host is life-long Republican and comedian, on a pit stop from her I Need a Job comedy tour, the fabulous Sheryl Underwood.

[Applause]

SHERYL UNDERWOOD: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

ANA NAVARRO: Had you come a week earlier you might be DHS secretary.

UNDERWOOD: And I will accept. They need somebody with some sense in this administration.

[Applause]

GOLDBERG: There is life here. We can all -- we can do this. I know we can. We can do this, regardless of what side of the aisle you are on. If we are shooting to make the country better, we can work it out together. I believe that.

UNDERWOOD: That's right. And, Whoopi, to that point, I think when -- you know, the thing is make America great, right? I think when we see people with the hat and the shirt on, we should just walk up to them and shake their hand and go, ‘we already have made America great.’ We did it together. When we come together as a country, come together as Americans, and it's okay to disagree with your leaders because they need somebody to say ‘that's not what we should be doing!’

[Applause]

(…)

11:06:17 a.m. Eastern

SUNNY HOSTIN: It is very clear that the President and his administration has not made the case for an imminent threat. And I want people to understand that imminent threat is a legal standard, it is a key legal standard, it's from 1837 from a case, the Caroline case.

The only way you start a war is if you know that an attack is about to happen. It's anticipatory self-defense. So the definition is instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means and no moment for deliberation.

In response to the imminent threat question on 60 Minutes Pete Hegseth said, well, they've been after us for 47 years. 47 years is not imminent threat and that's why this is illegal, and those soldiers, while they gave their life for this country, they should be alive today.

(…)

11:08:58 a.m. Eastern

UNDERWOOD: See, here's my problem with it, if it was such a problem, then why didn't the President run on that? Why didn't he clearly say that's what he wanted to do?

If you're talking about regime change or you're talking about no more forever wars, but now we are in something that you are not telling us why. And I put on a uniform to serve this country and I always wanted now why am I doing this?

[Image of Underwood in an Air Force photo]

That's me in the air force reserve. Why are we doing it?

And I do believe when they say you should not follow an unlawful order! Why is this not impeachable?! And where are the politicians to say this dude don't have it all the way together! He cannot be the commander-in-chief!

HOSTIN: And thank you for your service!

UNDERWOOD: Thank you. Because I’m following the commander-in-chief.

And to those families of those seven, we should care more about them than someone's personal interests if you are going to wage war! Because at first it wasn't a war, but now it's the department of war, now you are waging war, and you are putting American lives and soldiers at risk!

(…)

11:17:11 a.m. Eastern

SARA HAINES: Yeah, I had thrown out the question about the idea as someone who served in the military, your command comes from the top. Do you think that being in certain rooms and access to certain national intelligence could change the way you see this?

UNDERWOOD: Absolutely. We want to know why and we want to hear it from someone who we feel we can follow into battle. We don't want to hear it from somebody that's a TV personality who may have limited experience. I think this country is going to have to go back to the issues that we have, maybe the commander-in-chief would have to have some military experience, and understand that your order leads us into something that could reverberate around the world.

Getting our allies together or go to Congress. You've got control of the House and the Senate, why couldn't you take that vote? Or are you afraid that even your own allies were going to tell you no.

HAINES: One thing is every modern president just to be clear, I've said this multiple times, Biden, Obama, Clinton, George Bush, George H.W. Bush, Reagan, they all did this without Congress. So, Congress has ceded a power that they should be taking back if we want that [drowned out by crosstalk]

(…)

11:20:07 a.m. Eastern

HOSTIN: You know, he's saying well maybe -- he said on the airplane, ‘maybe we will have boots on the ground.’ Our military we are the biggest, the best trained military in the world, but you're going to be fighting in Iran's backyard. That is guerrilla fighting! That is a street fight!

UNDERWOOD: Yes.

HOSTIN: Our soldiers, many of them will not come home. Am I correct that that is a different type of fighting?

UNDERWOOD: And would they adhere to the Geneva convention?

HOSTIN: They won't!

UNDERWOOD: And to your point [looks to Haines], the presidents that you named we trusted them, it was a different time.

HAINES: That was the problem with the administration.

UNDERWOOD: We didn’t have what looks like an opportunist-in-chief in the White House. I'm not against the president. I'm against the person who is in the office right now that does not seem to care about what his actions cause! That's the only problem I have.

HOSTIN: And by the way, let's all remember -- and, you know, I think when you don't remember history past becomes prologue. Weapons of mass destruction, there were no weapons of mass destruction.

GOLDBERG: I mentioned that earlier.

HOSTIN: We got into a war --

UNDERWOOD: But we know what we sold them when you were on our side and we gave you weapons. That's why -- because I was in that one and we thought we were -- I had to put on that chem warfare, everybody in the military know it was in pieces and you had to put on the head first and blow it out and then put on pants. All military people know what I just said. But we know what we sold them when they were working on our side and that's what we're up against, but this is different.

HOSTIN: This is different.

UNDERWOOD: They just put in their leader who is an extension of what they are.

HAINES: He's actually worse.

HOSTIN: So, there is no regime change.

UNDERWOOD: I'm sorry, Whoopi.

GOLDBERG: No, no, no. I said this a couple days ago at this table. You don't know who is coming in.

UNDERWOOD: That’s right.

[Crosstalk]

NAVARRO: He thinks it's all going to be like Venezuela where he got the vice president -- that was a kleptocracy -- this is a theocracy. These people believe this stuff deeply. It's a completely different ball of wax.

GOLDBERG: Listen. Basically we are sending people in to lose their lives.

HOSTIN: Yes.

GOLDBERG: Because we’ve seen how fighting goes. We knew we shouldn't have gone into Afghanistan. We knew that, and they decided to do it anyway. So, now we are in the same position where someone who doesn't seem to care that human beings are being sent to war, that people's sons and daughters. His kids are not going!

UNDERWOOD: No. No. No. No.

(…)

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