Sunny Hostin Plays Footsie With Antisemitism, Hints War Is for Israel

Nicholas Fondacaro
March 19th, 2026 10:37 AM

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Ever since October 7, The View’s Sunny Hostin was flirting with promoting antisemitism; whether it was suggesting Israel brought it on themselves or defending calls for another Jewish genocide by college student. The ABC News co-host was back at it again during Wednesday’s show, this time the anti-Semitic resignation letter of Joe Kent from the National Counterterrorism Center gave her the perfect cover to push the trope that Israel was controlling America.

Amid their conversation about the war and Kent’s resignation, CNBC anchor Sara Eisen, who was guest co-hosting, took issue with Kent’s claim that “It is clear we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” “Number one, I think it's disrespectful and wrong to assume that the United States and the president, especially this president, whatever you think of him, does not act on his own agency and on behalf of the United States of America,” she said.

Hostin came striding to Kent’s defense and got confrontational over Eisen’s refusal to give credence to the idea that Trump had started the war for Israel’s benefit alone. Eisen accurately called the suggestion out as anti-Semitic:

HOSTIN: This corrupt president, you don't think he acts in his own benefit?!

[Crosstalk]

EISEN: I'm saying that he acts. He does not get coerced by other nations like Israel.

HOSTIN: Really?! Okay.

EISEN: I think it's a decision on behalf

HOSTIN: If that helps you sleep at night, that great.

EISEN: But I also think it is a very old-school anti-Semitic trope to blame the Jews and to blame Israel. It's as old as time. When you have problems in the world, you know, blame the media, blame the bankers, blame the Jews.

 

 

Hostin claimed she though antisemitism was “disgusting,” but continued to suggest that Kent had a point, citing how, “This is a joint operation with Israel, so we may have relied on Israeli intelligence.” Adding:

But, and two things can be true. This guy Kent can be a horrible person - and I believe he's anti-Semitic - but you have the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee saying 'I didn't support Kent's nomination, yet I'm glad he's willing to acknowledge the truth. There was no imminent threat to the United States and this war was a terrible idea.’ Take apart -- take away the anti-Semitism. I still believe there was no imminent threat.

Earlier in the conversation, Hostin praised Kent for being “right on this.” She ranted about how Iran was supposedly not a threat and how the strikes supposedly didn’t legally count as preemptive strikes (Click “expand”):

The other piece of it, Whoopi, and you're saying, but no one is telling us the truth. They're not telling us the true; because you have the Speaker of the House saying Iran was an imminent threat. That is not true. That's why I keep on saying this is an illegal war and it's an unconstitutional war.

It is very clear under international war that an imminent threat means that it's -- the threat is instant, it's overwhelmingly, it leaves you no choice of means, and there's no moment for deliberation. Didn't this President tell us last year that the strikes on Iran obliterated their nuclear capability?! Now, if we believe that to be true, then there was no imminent threat now!

And so, while this guy is a terrible guy who's a bigot and an anti-Semite and a hateful person, he was right on this! There was no imminent threat!

 

 

That was yet another hypocrisy from Hostin. Last year, at the same she was insisting it was worse to be black in America than live in Iran, she was claiming Israel’s preemptive strike were illegal because the very concept of preemptive strikes was illegal “under international law” (which doesn’t exist).

When introducing the segment, moderator Whoopi Goldberg tried to elevate Kent by overselling his role in the administration. According to her, Kent was the one gathering all the intelligence and making war plans: “So I just want to say he chose this man, as his top counterterrorism official, and he as the top counterterrorism official, he would have gotten all this information. He's the one that would have given it and said, this is my recommendation.”

As the music was trying to play them off at the end of the segment, Goldberg got into it with Eisen in an over effort to discredit the fact that the world would be safer without the regime of Iran backing terrorist groups (Click “expand”):

EISEN: I just think we have to zoom out and look at a potential long-term positive, we hope for something like this-

GOLDBERG: No. No.

EIDEN: - a safer world -

GOLDBERG: Yeah, no.

EISEN: - and don't want a nuclear -

HOSTIN: Do we feel safer now?

EISEN: I think ultimately if we win we will feel safer without having a huge with a huge state sponsor of terrorism.

GOLDBERG: And you know what that cost of that winning is? It's our live, it's our sons' lives. And this is a war that, you know, everything everybody has said, yes, the regime needed to change, yes, stuff needed to change.

 

 

The conflict had been going on for less than three weeks and Goldberg was irrationally comparing it to Vietnam and Afghanistan.

ABC News considers The View a “news” program.

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

ABC’s The View
March 18, 2026
11:04:00 a.m. Eastern

(…)

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So I just want to say he chose this man, as his top counterterrorism official, and he as the top counterterrorism official, he would have gotten all this information. He's the one that would have given it and said, this is my recommendation.

So, this idea that they are this far apart, I find -- no, I don't. I was going to say -- I was going to say I find -- but I don't because this is -- this is what happens. Somebody goes against and then they say, well, I had no idea. He's a dummy. He's this. He's not the person -- it's just like somebody just tell us what's going on. And it's hard to take anybody's word in anything because nobody seems to know what the hell is happening!

JOY BEHAR: You can't turn on Trump in any way. He has a fit. He has a conniption we used to say when I was a kid. And he will just turn on you. I love you, I love you, now you're an idiot, I mean, depending on what position you take against him. That's all he cares about.

He doesn't care if the a war or the people are suffering. I mean, he stopped AIDS relief for people in Africa. He's just -- he's a shell of a human being.

(…)

11:06:16 a.m. Eastern

SUNNY HOSTIN: The other piece of it, Whoopi, and you're saying, but no one is telling us the truth. They're not telling us the true; because you have the Speaker of the House saying Iran was an imminent threat. That is not true. That's why I keep on saying this is an illegal war and it's an unconstitutional war.

It is very clear under international war that an imminent threat means that it's -- the threat is instant, it's overwhelmingly, it leaves you no choice of means, and there's no moment for deliberation. Didn't this President tell us last year that the strikes on Iran obliterated their nuclear capability?! Now, if we believe that to be true, then there was no imminent threat now!

And so, while this guy is a terrible guy who's a bigot and an anti-Semite and a hateful person, he was right on this! There was no imminent threat!

BEHAR: The imminent threat to Trump were the Epstein files!

HOSTIN: Correct!

(…)

11:08:50 a.m. Eastern

SARA EISEN: I think it's fair to debate the merits of the war and you guys do that every day and we all do that and whether it was imminent or not. But I think what jumps off the page here about this resignation letter, which I think we have to just call out here; is that Kent writes, ‘It is clear we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.’ Now, there two things about that.

Number one, I think it's disrespectful and wrong to assume that the United States and the president, especially this president, whatever you think of him, does not act on his own agency and on behalf of the United States of America.

SARA HAINES: Usually just his own agency.

GOLDBERG: It’s usually this own agency.

EISEN: On our own accord for the United States. But number two I think we have to call this what it is.

SUNNY HOSTIN: This corrupt president, you don't think he acts in his own benefit?!

[Crosstalk]

EISEN: I'm saying that he acts. He does not get coerced by other nations like Israel.

HOSTIN: Really?! Okay.

EISEN I think it's a decision on behalf

HOSTIN: If that helps you sleep at night, that great.

EISEN: But I also think it is a very old-school anti-Semitic trope to blame the Jews and to blame Israel. It's as old as time. When you have problems in the world, you know, blame the media, blame the bankers, blame the Jews.

HAINES: And he’s know to do that, Kent.

EISEN: And he’s flat out anti-Semitic - absolutely and I think we should call it what it is.

HOSTIN: You mean his statement. His withdrawal.

EISEN: The statement and the withdrawal. He  does not blame the President. He blames Israel.

BEHAR: There’s a lot of people.

EISEN: And there's a lot of people who -- it's out there and it is a classic case of quintessential anti-Semitism. And by the way, it is a dangerous time to do that because the Jews are under attack and we're fortifying our synagogues and our schools and --

HOSTIN: I would agree with that -

EISEN: It's very dangerous.

HOSTIN: There is a rise in anti-Semitism. I think it' disgusting. I think it’s reprehensible. This is a joint operation with Israel, so we may have relied on Israeli intelligence.

EISEN: Our ally, our partner.

HAINES: And they’ve relied on our intelligence.

HOSTIN: And they’ve relied on our intelligence. So, it is a joint.

EISEN: For sure.

HOSTIN: But, and two things can be true. This guy Kent can be a horrible person - and I believe he's anti-Semitic - but you have the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee saying 'I didn't support Kent's nomination, yet I'm glad he's willing to acknowledge the truth. There was no imminent threat to the United States and this war was a terrible idea.’

Take apart -- take away the anti-Semitism. I still believe there was no imminent threat.

[Crosstalk]

BEHAR: Can’t the Israelis - Netanyahu can have his motivation for attacking Iran, they're very close, but Trump can have his motivation. They are separate motivations.

(…)

11:11:36 a.m. Eastern

EISEN: Now you're getting into the war, right? And whether it's an imminent threat.

HOSTIN: I think there are separate motivations here.

EISEN: I just think we have to zoom out and look at a potential long-term positive, we hope for something like this-

GOLDBERG: No. No.

EIDEN: - a safer world -

GOLDBERG: Yeah, no.

EISEN: - and don't want a nuclear -

HOSTIN: Do we feel safer now?

EISEN: I think ultimately if we win we will feel safer without having a huge with a huge state sponsor of terrorism.

GOLDBERG: And you know what that cost of that winning is? It's our live, it's our sons' lives. And this is a war that, you know, everything everybody has said, yes, the regime needed to change, yes, stuff needed to change.

There's a way to do that. And it's not by just throwing people in and saying, hey, listen, I could have changed this, I could have stopped this but I decided let it go. You're fooling with American lives. You're fooling with volunteers --

EISEN: And I don't discount that -[Crosstalk]

GOLDBERG: Well, I'm glad because I feel like they do because if you care, if you care about the people that are put in who said I will give my life for this country, then you respectfully go to war. You do it with respect. This was done not respectfully.

HOSTIN: And with a plan.

GOLDBERG: And with a plan and an idea how we go about it. We've done this enough times to know better. Look at Vietnam! It took us forever to get out of there! Forever!

HOSTIN: Afghanistan.

GOLDBERG: Afghanistan. There are so many and this was not done well!

I know, I see you. I'm sorry. We'll be right back.

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