In a Monday appearance on The View’s Behind the Table podcast, ABC co-host Sunny Hostin doubled down on equating the upcoming execution of convicted terrorist Nidal Hasan, and its possible public view ability, as equivalent to public lynchings of black men in the South. She took it a step further and equated it to the recorded beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl by ISIS terrorists.
And in an additional example of Hostin seeing everything through the prism of chronic racial grievance, on Tuesday’s episode of The View, she suggested it was racist of President Trump to accurately describe Somalia as a failed state.
Calling the death penalty “barbaric” in general, Hostin tried to suggest she had the morally superior, “pro-life” position:
It's just, you know, and I've been very clear, I think, you know, Pope Leo said it best for most Catholics, that we believe life is sacred from conception through natural death. And so, that is why I'm consistently, you know, pro-life, also anti-death penalty, and also anti-instrumentalities of death, like AR-15s, right? So, I'm pretty consistent with that.
As NewsBusters previously debunked, she was not actually pro-life. While Hostin claimed she believed “human life is sacred from conception until natural death,” she has applauded rising abortion rates and decried the Catholic Church for denying then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi communion for her abortion stance. She’s previously summarized her position as: she was against abortions for her but thought others should be able to have it as an option.
Sunny Hostin doubles down on equating the execution of convicted terrorist Nidal Hasan to "lynchings" of black men in the South and the beheading of Daniel Pearl by ISIS.
She also calls the execution a "murder" by the state and claims it would be shown to children. pic.twitter.com/B8uayiyrNb— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 13, 2026
Hostin has even made excuses for the assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thomas, and played the alleged killer’s defense attorney on TV.
Back on Monday, she parroted her comments from the show earlier in the day and suggested the execution was just like the lynchings of black men. She also falsely described the execution of the terrorist as a “murder”:
You know, I talked today about, you know, hearing my great-grandmother and my grandmother, and to some degree, my father, talking about the lynchings that happened in the South, and, you know, sundown towns, and how, you know, my great-grandmother, Lili May, you know, remembering, you know, young black men hanging from trees, and people being set on fire.
I don't, when I think about America, I don't think that that is the type of country we a - that we should be. And the notion of televising an execution, the murder of another person by the government, strikes me as deeply un-American and barbaric.
Further in her conversation with the show’s executive producer Brian Teta, Hostin invoked the memory of Pearl, who was abducted and beheaded by ISIS terrorists in video circulated online. She also claimed the video would be specifically shown to children (Click "expand"):
HOSTIN: I remember there was a reporter, believe his name was Danny, and he was executed by terrorists and beheaded. And it made its way onto social media.
TETA: Right.
HOSTIN: And I unfortunately looked at that. And I met his widow, and I remember discussing it with her and how painful that was. And so, just the notion that that kind of thing would be live streamed for everyone to see.
TETA: In America.
HOSTIN: In America, for children to see.
Sunny Hostin calls it "racist" to acknowledge the fact that Somalia is a failed state.
She claims every racist in the country is part of Trump's base. Which is not true since she doesn't support him. pic.twitter.com/ufGyFk5fmR— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 13, 2026
As further evidence that Hostin wasn’t living in reality, she suggested Trump was racist by calling out Somalia’s very real status as a failed state. “I think it's racist. He called Somalia a non-country, which has 20-plus million people. It's an African country. So, this is par for the course for this president,” she whined.
In 2011, ABC reported that Somalia topped Fund for Peace’s Failed State Index. The situation hasn’t improved with multiple factions stating over portions of the territory and rejecting the authority of Mogadishu.
“I think you make a good point there, because he is throwing racist red meat at his base. I'm not saying that his entire base is racist, but I'm saying that all the racists are part of his base,” she declared.
If that was true, Hostin would be a Trump fan.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Behind the Table
October 12, 2026
00:24BRIAN TETA: Let's dive right in if we can. We talked today on the show about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying he plans to, I can't believe this is, I'm saying this, live stream, the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan. You called it Un-American.
Obviously, this person did horrible, unspeakable things. The death penalty we've been debating on the show for a couple of weeks, this is now another level of it, the idea that it should be live streamed.
He's meeting some resistance even within the party. What are your thoughts about this?
SUNNY HOSTIN: It's just, you know, and I've been very clear, I think, you know, Pope Leo said it best for most Catholics, that we believe life is sacred from conception through natural death. And so, that is why I'm consistently, you know, pro-life, also anti-death penalty, and also anti-instrumentalities of death, like AR-15s, right? So, I'm pretty consistent with that.
And it just seems to me that the death penalty in and of itself is barbaric. We saw, what's her name, Christa Pike? You know, a botched execution. And the question is, should we try to execute her again? I would think that America should be in a different place.
You know, I talked today about, you know, hearing my great-grandmother and my grandmother, and to some degree, my father, talking about the lynchings that happened in the South, and, you know, sundown towns, and how, you know, my great-grandmother, Lili May, you know, remembering, you know, young black men hanging from trees, and people being set on fire.
I don't, when I think about America, I don't think that that is the type of country we a - that we should be. And the notion of televising an execution, the murder of another person by the government, strikes me as deeply un-American and barbaric. We -
I remember there was a reporter, believe his name was Danny, and he was executed by terrorists and beheaded. And it made its way onto social media.
TETA: Right.
HOSTIN: And I unfortunately looked at that. And I met his widow, and I remember discussing it with her and how painful that was. And so, just the notion that that kind of thing would be live streamed for everyone to see.
TETA: In America.
HOSTIN: In America, for children to see.
TETA: And they would see it.
HOSTIN: And they would see it.
(…)
ABC’s The View
October 13, 2026
11:07:44 a.m. Eastern(...)
SUNNY HOSTIN: I think you make a good point there, because he is throwing racist red meat at his base. I'm not saying that his entire base is racist, but I'm saying that all the racists are part of his base. And so, what I will say is that this is xenophobic. I think it's racist. He called Somalia a non-country, which has 20-plus million people. It's an African country. So, this is par for the course for this president.
(…)
