Sunny Hostin feels 'terrible' about Kamala Harris fumbling her viral question about differences with Biden
"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin defended her viral question to former Vice President Kamala Harris last year that set back her campaign in a new podcast interview, but Hostin said she felt "terrible" that it had such an impact.
As producer Brian Teta joked on the show's "Behind the Table" podcast that Hostin had "single-handedly taken down the Democratic Party" with her question to Harris about differences between her and President Joe Biden, the liberal co-host insisted it was fair and something Harris should have expected.
Harris joined the co-hosts of "The View" in early October 2024 and was asked by Hostin if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden over the course of the presidency. Harris told the co-hosts, "not a thing comes to mind," which was widely criticized and seen by some as a turning point for the campaign, given Biden's unpopularity and Harris avoiding an easy opportunity to create space for herself.
"I knew it instantly when she answered it," Hostin said during the podcast conversation, when asked by Teta if she knew it would be a viral moment. "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."
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Hostin had no interest in hurting Harris' chances. The liberal co-host openly supported Harris and also predicted she would easily win the election.
Hostin argued she felt Harris needed to express what her administration would look like in contrast with Biden's.
"And now Jake Tapper wrote it in his book?" she asked her fellow co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin. "I feel terrible."
Teta also asked the co-hosts if they felt Harris' answer really cost her the election.
"No, right?" Hostin asked the live audience present, as she smiled. Co-host Sara Haines and Teta agreed, as Griffin suggested it did play a role in her loss.
"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… They used it to say, 'Well, she's not going to do anything different,'" Griffin said.
Democratic strategist James Carville said after the election that Harris' loss could be reduced to the viral moment on "The View."
"The country wants something different. And she’s asked, as is so often the case, in a friendly audience, on 'The View,' 'How would you be different than Biden?' That’s the one question that you exist to answer, alright? That is it. That’s the money question. That's the one you want. That’s the one that everybody wants to know the answer to. And you freeze! You literally freeze and say, ‘Well, I can’t think of anything,’" Carville said last November after Trump's win.
At the start of the podcast discussion, Behar quipped, "it's Sunny's fault she didn't win."
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Hostin said in November she was surprised by Harris' flub, and called it a layup question at the time.
"I was surprised at the answer because it was a question that really could have inured to her benefit. It was a question that could have been a change maker," she said.