Sunny Hostin Condemns Success in America Unless It's for the 'Collective’

Nicholas Fondacaro
September 25th, 2026 4:47 PM

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Apparently, The View’s Sunny Hostin had an insatiable appetite for putting her foot in her mouth this week. During Friday’s episode of the ABC News program, Hostin lashed out at Judge Judy Sheindlin for praising America for her success. Hostin proclaimed personal success meant nothing if it wasn’t about ensuring success “for the collective.” Possibly irritated about the scrutiny her tall tale about being a holdout juror generated, Hostin bitterly suggested her critics were all just racist.

What trigged Hostin so bad was Judge Judy praising America for her personal success, and telling ungrateful leftists who hated the country and wanted to fundamentally change it to move to the countries they idolized so much:

I have a house and I have a home. I consider America my home. America has been good to me. [Transition] We are a capitalist country that revered excellence that revered entrepreneurship, that revered all the things that made us great. [Transition] If you don't like this country, go somewhere else. Don't come to the greatest country in the world, the most successful country in the world and say, ‘I want to change it.’ There are other countries that are -- something else that you want. Go there.

“I heard a lot about 'me.' 'I have a house.' 'I have been successful.' And not a lot about the collective,” Hostin griped. “It's not me, me, me. It's the collective,” she later added.

Hostin, who has repeatedly whined that Republican warnings about socialism were about creating a “boogieman,” went on about how the “collective” needed to be primary thought when factoring for success:

Because what is success if everyone else isn't successful? What is success if there's racism and if there's classism, and people can't afford food and they can't educate their children and they're gutting the Department of Education. So, that's what I heard. I heard a very selfishness.

 

 

“I mean, this country has been great to me. Has been great to my family. I'm sitting here,” the multimillionaire TV personality proclaimed. “I got a great education here, I'm successful, but I want to quote James Baldwin because he said, ‘I love America more than any other country in the world and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.’ And that is how I feel.”

Hostin bloviating about how good America has been to her was just lip service to benefit her argument in the moment.

Back in June, she proclaimed on the show that she was “embarrassed” by America and called it a “failed experiment.” In 2023, she declared America was a worse country than China and that she felt most comfortable when she was visiting Ghana.

Back on Friday, Hostin shared that she did not “participate” in having a critical internal voice that could or would influence her away from saying or doing certain things. She chided that she didn’t need it because she already had so many racist critics outside her head:

I don't have this sort of negative self-talk going on in my head. The world already tries to tell me what I can and cannot say and what I can and cannot do. And as a black woman in the United States, I don't have that sort of thing going on in my mind because I'm criticized constantly.

 

 

“My average has to be excellent, so I don't participate in that,” she huffed.

No Sunny, you are criticized constantly because you’re an idiot with a platform who blows a lot of hot air on TV. That’s the voice many of us listen to so we don’t look like fools.

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

ABC’s The View
September 25, 2026
11:02:48 a.m. Eastern

(…)

JUDGE JUDY SHEINDLIN: I have a house and I have a home. I consider America my home. America has been good to me. [Transition] We are a capitalist country that revered excellence that revered entrepreneurship, that revered all the things that made us great. [Transition] If you don't like this country, go somewhere else. Don't come to the greatest country in the world, the most successful country in the world and say, ‘I want to change it.’ There are other countries that are -- something else that you want. Go there.

(…)

11:07:17 a.m. Eastern

SUNNY HOSTIN: I heard it the way you heard it, Ana.

ANA NAVARRO: Yeah, I heard it.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: This is like a Rorschach test.

HOSTIN: I heard it loud and clear and I -- to quote.

JOY BEHAR: What did you hear?

HOSITN: I heard a lot about 'me.' 'I have a house.' 'I have been successful.' And not a lot about the collective. Because what is success if everyone else isn't successful? What is success if there's racism and if there's classism, and people can't afford food and they can't educate their children and they're gutting the Department of Education.

FARAH GRIFFIN: But that exists on every nation on Earth.

HOSTIN: So, that's what I heard. I heard a very selfishness.

I mean, this country has been great to me. Has been great to my family. I'm sitting here. I got a great education here, I'm successful, but I want to quote James Baldwin because he said, ‘I love America more than any other country in the world and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.’ And that is how I feel. I have the right to do it.

[Applause]

And the bottom line is, America is not great for all of its citizens and you need to be able to point that out. It's not me, me, me. It's the collective.

[Applause]

(…)

11:16:11 a.m. Eastern

HOSTIN: I don't have this sort of negative self-talk going on in my head. The world already tries to tell me what I can and cannot say and what I can and cannot do. And as a black woman in the United States, I don't have that sort of thing going on in my mind because I'm criticized constantly and I have to -- my average has to be excellent, so I don't participate in that.

(…)

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