Thursday was author and podcaster Kara Swisher’s last day filling in for co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View and she went out with some sparks. Swisher clashed with co-host Sunny Hostin on the role of White House beat reporters when one of their own was directly called out and insulted by President Trump. Hostin wanted a swift and stern confront, while Swisher argued for reporters not making themselves part of the story like that.
Spurred on by another contentious interaction between Trump and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in the Oval Office, Hostin was upset that Trump singled out Collins for not smiling. “By the way, the other reporters weren't smiling. The men weren't smiling. He didn't mention that,” she chided.
Hostin proclaimed she took “a bit of umbrage at the other reporters” in the room, particularly the men for not being her white knight and riding to Collins’ rescue. “When one of your colleagues is attacked in that way, a follow-up question should have been or a statement, someone in the room, maybe one of the men should have said, 'sir, you should not speak to her that way,’” she whined.
“I would have liked to have seen that,” she added.
Swisher disagreed, arguing that it’s not a reporter’s job to “react to that kind of nonsense”:
SWISHER: I'm going to disagree with you because I think the job of reporters is not to react to that kind of nonsense. Right? The story -- the whole thing is when you're a reporter, the story shouldn't be about you. And when it is, it's a mistake.
HOSTIN: That is true.
SARA HAINES: When you're a good reporter.
SWISHER: When you're a good reporter. [Laughter] Well yeah, that's fair.
Sunny Hostin and Kara Swisher cat fight over the press confronting Trump of criticizing reporters:
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) June 4, 2026
SUNNY HOSTIN: But I also take a bit of umbrage at the other reporters there because - By the way, the other reporters weren't smiling. The men weren't smiling. He didn't mention… pic.twitter.com/ixAtsWOLQ8
“And I thought she handled it well. She has to be absolutely -- she made a joke about Alabama which is fantastic,” she added. “But the minute you say something, you get dragged into it in a way that he benefits and you don't.”
That didn’t sit well with Hostin, who proceeded to have slightly heated back and forth with Swisher where she insisted that reporters needed to constantly be in Trump’s face:
HOSTIN: What about the other reporters, do you think that maybe they should have said -
SWISHER: No, nobody should say anything.
HOSTIN: Because I think this administration is so aberrant, I think they are so - it's just such an abnormal situation. I don't know that you play by the rules that we used to play by.
SWISHER: Because that becomes the story then, the fight between him and her.
HOSITN: Although, it's already the story.
SWISHER: No, it's not because she then asked a question. By the way, what was really interesting is she hadn't asked a question.
HOSTIN: She had not.
To drive the point home that reporters shouldn’t be adversarial to Trump in the moment, Swisher commended Collins for keeping her cool and getting “news” from Trump. “But she then got in a question in about the slush fund and then he answered in a very different way from Todd Blanche. She got what she needed which was the news. She got the news,” she said.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
June 4, 2026
11:05:06 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: But I also take a bit of umbrage at the other reporters there because - By the way, the other reporters weren't smiling. The men weren't smiling. He didn't mention that.
But I do feel that when you -- when one of your colleagues is attacked in that way, a follow-up question should have been or a statement, someone in the room, maybe one of the men should have said, 'sir, you should not speak to her that way.' I would have liked to have seen that.
[Applause]
KARA SWISHER: I'm going to disagree with you because I think the job of reporters is not to react to that kind of nonsense. Right? The story -- the whole thing is when you're a reporter, the story shouldn't be about you. And when it is, it's a mistake.
HOSTIN: That is true.
SARA HAINES: When you're a good reporter.
SWISHER: When you're a good reporter. [Laughter] Well yeah, that's fair.
But it's really hard. I mean, one of the things, I know Kaitlan really well. He attacks Maggie Haberman, a whole bunch of people I know really well.
And to react is the really -- is where you lose in that game because with these people everything -- every accusation is a confession, so what he is saying is about him and not about her.
And I thought she handled it well. She has to be absolutely -- she made a joke about Alabama which is fantastic. But the minute you say something, you get dragged into it in a way that he benefits and you don't.
HOSTIN: What about the other reporters, do you think that maybe they should have said -
SWISHER: No, nobody should say anything.
HOSTIN: Because I think this administration is so aberrant, I think they are so - it's just such an abnormal situation. I don't know that you play by the rules that we used to play by.
SWISHER: Because that becomes the story then, the fight between him and her.
HOSITN: Although, it's already the story.
SWISHER: No, it's not because she then asked a question. By the way, what was really interesting is she hadn't asked a question.
HOSTIN: She had not.
SWISHER: But she then got in a question in about the slush fund and then he answered in a very different way from Todd Blanche. She got what she needed which was the news. She got the news.
(…)
