The View’s staunchly racist and anti-Semitic co-host, Sunny Hostin (the descendant of slave owners) often lords her long-ago past of being a federal prosecutor over the rest of the cast as they default to her for legal analysis. The problem with that is that her interpretations of the law and legal procedure are often colored by her political opinions and they tend to fall apart under even layman scrutiny. Well, that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday when her claims about reasonable doubt and crime were busted.
At the top of the show, a majority of the cast kvetched about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s congressional testimony from the previous day. Hostin claimed Hur couldn’t be trusted because he “was appointed by Trump” to be special counsel.
That was a lie. Hur was appointed special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland on January 12, 2023:
By virtue of the authority vested in the Attorney General, including 28 U.S.C. §§ 509, 510, 515, and 533, in order to discharge my responsibility to provide supervision and management of the Department of Justice, and to ensure a full and thorough investigation of certain matters, I hereby order as follows:
- Robert K. Hur is appointed to serve as Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice.
Hostin also didn’t seem to understand what the legal standard “beyond a reasonable doubt” meant in terms of prosecuting a case before a jury, or at least didn’t want to give credence to Hur’s reasoning for why he didn’t think he could bring the case against President Biden:
HOSTIN: Specifically, his description of saying that Joe Biden, part of the reason he wouldn't charge Biden was that the President could portray himself as an elderly man with a poor memory who would be sympathetic to a jury. That is not the standard when you're a prosecutor. The standard is can you prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt?! One second.
[Applause]
That is the standard!
“And that was one of the reasons he felt that he couldn't win the case [beyond a reasonable doubt],” non-lawyer Alyssa Farah Griffin plainly spelled out. “Nope! That is the legal standard!” Hostin shrieked in denial.
Thinking she was calling out a double standard, Hostin demanded to know where the Department of Justice investigation into former Vice President MIke Pence's classified document retention. Special Counsel Jack Smith investigated and closed the case back in June 2023, with no charges filed.
Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul was The View’s special guest that day and – as a proponent for the far-left’s bail reform and other weak-on-crime policy proposals – Hostin took it upon herself to voice progressive frustration over the Governor calling up the National Guard and State Troopers to help keep the New York City subway system safe.
“Why now, why deploy to the subway and how do you respond to some of your fellow Democrats calling the move theatrics that play into Republican narratives that blue cities are poorly run war zones?” she whined.
Hochul pushed back: “I’m not buying it. My job is to keep you people safe.” She said average New Yorkers were appreciative of the extra protection and commended the National Guard for stepping up and answering the call.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
March 13, 2024
11:06:19 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: I actually disagree with the assessment that this special counsel that was appointed by Trump was nonpartisan.
[Applause]
There is no way that a prosecutor puts -- summarizes things in a report that are not contained in the transcripts. That is not how the procedure is done, because I have --
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: So, you think only Democrats can try cases against Democrats and only Republicans can try cases against Republicans?
HOSTIN: No, what I’m saying is back in the day when I was a prosecutor, I didn't know which of my colleagues were Republican, which were independents, which were Democrats.
FARAH GRIFFIN: But it's public record who appointed them.
HOSTIN: Yes, that's true. I was in the Clinton administration and I was also in the Bush administration. But, and that is frequently the case, but this prosecutor was very partisan and I can tell from --
FARAH GRIFFIN: What specific regard?
HOSTIN: Specifically, his description of saying that Joe Biden, part of the reason he wouldn't charge Biden was that the President could portray himself as an elderly man with a poor memory who would be sympathetic to a jury. That is not the standard when you're a prosecutor. The standard is can you prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt?! One second.
[Applause]
That is the standard.
FARAH GRIFFIN: And that was one of the reasons he felt that he couldn't win the case.
HOSTIN: Nope! That is the legal standard!
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Hold on. Let's --
SARA HAINES: Thank you. Sara. Just jumping in here -- I actually in watching it I tend to think when everyone is mad at you at the same time you’ve probably hit the right tone on both sides. So, I didn't feel -- I forgot who asked about “did you know the firestorm you would be releasing?”
JOY BEHAR: Adam Schiff.
HAINES: I don’t want prosecutors to be thinking about that. I want prosecutors to do their job. It should be absent of the response to that job.
HOSTIN: But he didn’t use the right legal standard!
HAINES: But what I’m saying is, I actually took it as the fact that everyone was mad I heard a lot of political noise and what became very clear, which he made in his report, is how different the situation was with Donald Trump.
(…)
11:49:17 a.m. Eastern
HOSTIN: Governor, after a series of high-profile crimes on New York City subways, right, you deployed hundreds of state police and National Guard troops into the subway system. But since the pandemic, you have done a wonderful job. Overall crime is down in the city.
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): Yes, it is.
HOSTIN: My question is: why now, why deploy to the subway and how do you respond to some of your fellow Democrats calling the move theatrics that play into Republican narratives that blue cities are poorly run war zones?
HOCHUL: I'm not buying it. I’m not buying it. My job is to keep you people safe.
[Applause]
I have to -- any way I can I'll keep New Yorkers safe and I’ll tell you who does show appreciation for it, the people out there on the streets. I've been walking the streets. I walk into businesses, people are saying, thank you for taking such strong action.
(…)
