Sunny Hostin: 'I Feel Terrible' About Taking Down Kamala’s Campaign #Political
It’s been haunting her months. Just weeks before Election Day 2024, Kamala Harris fangirl and co-host of ABC’s The View, Sunny Hostin accidentally torpedoed the Democratic ticket with a simple question to distinguish herself from President Biden. During a live recording of their The View’s Behind the Table podcast on Wednesday, executive producer Brian Teta and rest of the cast poked fun at her for finally getting in the history books, as Hostin squirmed.
As NewsBusters reported at the time, Hostin’s question was simple but Harris whiffed in spectacular fashion (Click “expand”):
HOSTIN: And he said there wasn't a single thing that he did that you could not do. What do you think would be the biggest specific difference between your presidency and a bidency -- a Biden presidency?
HARRIS: Well obviously, we're two different people.
(…)
HOSTIN: If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?
HARRIS: There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of – and I've been part of most of the decisions that have had impact.
As he broached the sensitive topic, Teta tried to have fun with it. “Sunny. We can't ignore the fact that you may have single-handedly taken down the Democratic Party - some would say democracy itself - with one question,” he quipped.
Looking to the audience for a life preserver, Hostin asked if they remembered that moment. A resounding “yes” form the crowd caused Hostin to cringe in physiological pain (pictured above).
When asked if she knew in the moment how significant the flub was, Hostin said she knew immediately:
TETA: Well, did you know instantly that this was gonna be meaningful the way she answered it?
HOSTIN: I knew it instantly when she answered it, which is why I asked the follow up question. ‘Is there one thing?’ You know, because I – I – I knew I – I just, I could see the sound bite and I knew what was gonna happen, but I thought it was a really fair question, and I thought it was a question that she would expect.
Teta and her co-hosts reassured her that it wasn’t a “gotcha question” (which it wasn’t). “That’s never my intention, but I think we ask tough questions because I think our viewers want to hear those answers,” she said. “And Barbara Walters asked tough questions. And so, I just felt that that's something that she needed to do differentiate what a Harris administration would look like as opposed to a Biden administration and she didn't have the answer that I expected.”
Hostin did admit that she thought she knew how Harris would answer it:
I expected her answer to be something like, “We have won. We have this win, this win, this win, this win. We've been more successful than any other administration in decades, and so I intend to build on those wins. But of course, I'm gonna be different because I'm a woman of color. I'm a child of immigrants. I'm gonna – I'm a lawyer. I'm going to do things differently through the my life experience.’ But – I mean, doesn't that sound like a good answer? Like, I just assume that was the answer and then I- I didn't get that.
She was also upset that CNN’s Jake Tapper had written about it in his book, and right-leaning co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin gave her the uncomfortable truth that, “It's honestly in every 2024 recap book as kind of the moment.”
“I feel terrible,” Hostin lamented as co-host Sara Haines tried to give her a silver lining. “Sunny, you’re in the history books,” she said. Farah Griffin tried to take the weight off of Hostin by arguing that it, “Speaks to how important this show is though. It is where presidential candidates come and make their way or they fail and don't meet the moment.”
“Thanks for bringing that up, Brian,” Hostin grumbled. “No problem!” Teta breamed in sarcasm as he pivoted to asking if they “believe that really did change the election? I don't think so.” Hostin asked the audience what they though, giving her the “no” that she was seeking.
Farah Griffin disagree and suggest that “it played a role” in how thinking played out in the final days, particularly aiding the Trump campaign:
The Trump campaign put so much ad money behind that specific clip. And what they were trying to do is tie her to Biden's unfavorabilities, but more than that just simply the right track, wrong track of the election. So, even people who might be kind of neutral on Biden, that – it was something like 67 percent of the country felt like the country was going the wrong way. So, they used it to say, ‘well, she's not gonna do anything different.’ It wasn't any one thing, but they use – they really were able to use it.
Later on in the podcast, Hostin laughably claimed that a “misconception” about her was that “I’m some sort of controversy queen.”
Sure, Sunny. Sure.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Behind the Table
June 18, 2025
12:46 mk(…)
BRIAN TETA: The last time we sat down for a live podcast, it was October 8th of last year. It feels like longer. But it happened to be, it was a month before the presidential election. It happened to be the day that former Vice President Kamala Harris joined our table for an interview.
JOY BEHAR: Oh!
TETA: It made quite a bit of news, created some viral moments. Um, I guess I'll start with Sunny.
BEHAR: Sunny ruined it. It's Sunny's fault she didn't win!
[Laughter]
TETA: Sunny. We can't ignore the fact that you may have single-handedly taken down the Democratic Party - some would say democracy itself - with one question that you asked Vice President Harris about what you would do differently than President Biden, what, how a president –
SUNNY HOSTIN: Do y’all remember that?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
[Hostin recoils]
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: Hard to forget.
TETA: Take me back to that moment and –
SARA HAINES: How hard did you think that question was gonna be?
TETA: Well, did you know instantly that this was gonna be meaningful the way she answered it?
HOSTIN: I knew it instantly when she answered it, which is why I asked the follow up question. ‘Is there one thing?’ You know, because I – I – I knew I – I just, I could see the sound bite and I knew what was gonna happen, but I thought it was a really fair question, and I thought it was a question that she would expect.
TETA: It wasn't a gotcha question.
FARAH GRIFFIN: By any means.
HAINES: It shouldn’t have been a gotcha question.
HOSTIN: That’s never my intention, but I think we ask tough questions because I think our viewers want to hear those answers.
TETA: Yes.
HOSTIN: Right? And Barbara Walters asked tough questions. And so, I just felt that that's something that she needed to do differentiate what a Harris administration would look like as opposed to a Biden administration and she didn't have the answer that I expected.
I expected her answer to be something like, “We have won. We have this win, this win, this win, this win. We've been more successful than any other administration in decades, and so I intend to build on those wins. But of course, I'm gonna be different because I'm a woman of color. I'm a child of immigrants. I'm gonna – I'm a lawyer. I'm going to do things differently through the my life experience.’
But – I mean, doesn't that sound like a good answer? Like, I just assume that was the answer and then I- I didn't get that. And now Jake Tapper wrote it in his book.
FARAH GRIFFIN: It's honestly in every 2024 recap book as kind of the moment, but it speaks –
HOSTIN: I feel terrible.
HAINES: Sunny, you’re in the history books.
FARAH GRIFFIN: It speaks to how – you are in the history books.
TETA: The relevance of The View.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Speaks to how important this show is though. It is where presidential candidates come and make their way or they fail and don't meet the moment.
TETA: Yeah, I don't really –
HOSTIN: Thanks for bringing that up, Brian.
TETA: No problem! Do you – Here's another question. Do you guys believe that really did change the election? I don't think so.
HAINES: I don't think it was the, I think it was –
HOSTIN [to the audience]: No, right?
AUDIENCE: No.
TETA: No.
FARAH GRIFFIN: I think it – I think it played a role. They put so much – the Trump campaign put so much ad money behind that specific clip. And what they were trying to do is tie her to Biden's unfavorabilities, but more than that just simply the right track, wrong track of the election.
So, even people who might be kind of neutral on Biden, that – it was something like 67 percent of the country felt like the country was going the wrong way. So, they used it to say, ‘well, she's not gonna do anything different.’ It wasn't any one thing, but they use – they really were able to use it.
HAINES: It was not only separating her – didn't separate her from Biden. It also was fueling the narrative like she doesn't know what she's doing, like what does she stand for? She doesn't think it and it just like gave them the commercial.
HOSTIN: Thanks Sarah.
(…)
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