Sunny Hostin regrets asking Kamala Harris a real question
It was meant to be the easiest of questions to answer. A layup. Softball. Sunny Hostin of TV’s “The View” had no intention to stump Kamala Harris or to surprise her when she asked, “Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?” And yet Harris’ answer was that no, there wasn’t anything – a response so inadequate that it helped sink her candidacy.
Now Hostin looks back and reflects:
Speaking on the “Behind the Table” podcast posted Wednesday, the incendiary host said she feels “terrible.”
“It’s Sunny’s fault she [Kamala] didn’t win,” Joy Behar quipped, trying to be funny but figuratively stabbing her co-host in the back. Sunny put her hands to her face in shame, then responded [when asked if she knew it would be a viral moment]:
“I knew it instantly when she answered it. … Which is why I asked the follow-up question, ‘is there one thing?’ Because I knew, I could see the soundbite and I knew what was going to happen, but I thought it was a really fair question and I thought it was a question that she would expect. …
“I feel terrible.”
She feels terrible that she asked a question that elicited an answer that hurt Kamala’s chances. Obviously, she still wishes Harris had been elected.
But here’s my question for Hostin: does she wonder why Harris gave such an abominable answer? I assume that Hostin – like so many people confronted with the flaws of their favored candidates – would make some sort of excuse. Was Kamala having a bad day, for example? But that doesn’t wash, because this was a question so basic, so obvious, that Harris should have had an acceptable answer memorized even if she couldn’t come up with one on the spot. Her answer wasn’t a fluke; it was emblematic of what was wrong.
To me, Harris had many many major flaws. The first set could be grouped under the heading “she’s a leftist.” But the second set was different, and even those who liked her leftism – such as Sunny Hostin – should have been alarmed by this second group, which could be grouped under the heading of “she’s utterly incompetent, mentally disorganized, and incapable of the most basic communication of ideas.”
What I find worthy of mention is the fact that Hostin and so many others never saw that or will not admit it even if they did see it. They cannot afford to do so, either to others or even to themselves. A mind is indeed a difficult thing to change.
2 +2 = 5, or 3, or whatever the Party says it is. Doublethink in action, but in regards to the basic competence of a high ranking member.
This is pure conjecture, but I suspect that rather unconventional deals were cut behind closed doors that enabled Kamala’s rise to the candidacy. A deal such as, “Never diss Joe in public!”
Even so… You gotta have some spiel in the can and ready to go, on that topic.
Neo
I have read that the reason for her word salads was an attempt to balance her long-held leftist views with her 2024 campaign attempts to appear more moderate. She could not come up with on the spot statements—nor could she probably prepare such statements—because it was nearly impossible to make a coherent statement that could satisfy both her long-held leftist views and her 2024 “moderate” statements.
Consider some of her statements on the Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah (Iran) conflict. In March 2024 she said to Israel,”don’t enter Rafah.” When Israel killed Sinwar in Rafah in October, she congratulated Israel. “ Harris Warned Israel Not to Invade City Where It Just Killed Hamas Chief.
Kamala had no problem with coming up with contradictory policy statements on Israel versus Hamas, as long as they fit the narrative of the day. Just like her long-held leftist views and her 2024 “moderate” stance.
I didn’t watch her debate with Trump, but I have read that she didn’t do that badly. She had time to prepare.
Whereas her word salads came from impromptu questions when she had to come up with an on-the-spot attempt to square the circle of her long-time leftist views with her new “moderate” views.
TommyJay, good possibility that Kamala (Que mala) was told as a condition of Biden’s support that she should not badmouth him.
Harris answered truthfully, she would have been in future or 6past just as much as a Puppet as Sundowner was. Not one decision would be different.
Gringo:
Kamala had been speaking in word salads at times for years before her candidacy.
I used to think that her word salads were the result of efforts by her media consultants to “dumb down” her rhetoric, so that it wouldn’t float over the heads of the average Joes and Janes. But then I wondered, who exactly is she targeting? Seven year olds??
Now, I suspect that this rhetoric perhaps represents the true Kamala who has bluffed her way through life, all the way to the point of running for the presidency. Idiocracy, to the max.
Tommy Jay: “the true Kamala who has bluffed her way through life.” Yes. She used connections and identity to rise, but there was never any “there” there.
Tommy Jay: “the true Kamala who has bluffed her way through life.” Yes. She used connections and identity to rise, but there was never any “there” there.
Given that Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, it is very fitting to use that phrase to describe her.
https://quarterly.mills.edu/steins-oakland-why-there-was-no-there-there/
The fact that Kamala Harris wasn’t even prepared for such an obvious question speaks volumes about not just her general competence, but also her arrogance. We’re all very used to polished politicians who are always well prepared for such questions. They expect them and they do the work to prepare for them. Harris clearly wasn’t prepared. She either never expected to not be asked such a question or felt she could wing it without any preperation. Or she just didn’t imagine such a question. This all points to her being an entitled low tier midwit.
The modern Democrat party is lousy with such people. This is the end result of decades of politicians never being truly challenged by a compliant media combined with the elevation of deeply unqualified people into the highest positions of power based purely on identity politics rather than any real merit or ability of a given individual. So now they have a party whose political bench is composed primarily of braying ninnies and vacuous sensationalists like AOC and Jasmine Crockett with no intellectual heft to speak of. It’s comically tragic.
And to add…I reject out of hand that Ms Hostin ‘in the moment’ could foresee the campaign ads using the Kamala answer to the question. She’s not that smart to think ahead. I’d suggest the follow-up came from her earpiece fed to her by a producer or campaign ‘boss.’
This sounds to me like Tapper’s “we wuz all hoodwinked” book.
I thought Iger told the View to scale back the politics. I guess an empty threat from him.
physicsguy: I thought Iger told the View to scale back the politics. I guess an empty threat from him.
That was my understanding too. They did add a sort of conservative woman for “balance.”
Yesterday on The View Whoopi Goldberg stepped in it by insisting that being black in America is the same as being gay or a woman in Iran.
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/06/18/whoopis-america-hating-rant-reaches-new-low-on-the-view-n4940931
Disney would have to get rid of Whoopi, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin to even start nudging the show back to its Barabara Walters days.
Yes alyssa farah once upon a time, was a producer for laura ingraham then she went to the darkside
Hostin’s pretty dumb if she didn’t know not to even start.