Alyssa Farah Griffin visibly recoiled on Wednesday when her liberal co-host Sunny Hostin appeared to blow off the attempted assassination of Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.
Griffin, a Republican who was hired to replace former co-host Meghan McCain on ABC’s midday talk show “The View,” was clearly taken aback when Hostin explained away the vicious attack by saying that Zeldin was “hated.”
WATCH:
Racist Sunny Hostin justifies the attempted assassination of Lee Zeldin because "he's hated."
And she blames him directly for a rise in murders because "He voted against the ban on semiautomatic weapons."
Whoopi brushed off the crime happening to his family: "that's New York." pic.twitter.com/EufhqlxwP0— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) October 26, 2022
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg began the segment with a response to New York’s gubernatorial debate — which took place on Tuesday between Zeldin and incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul — and she accused Zeldin of simply attacking Hochul on crime without ever presenting a plan of his own.
“Crime is rough everywhere, it’s happening everywhere,” Goldberg insisted, adding, “And what I wanted from Lee Zeldin, I wanted a plan.”
Goldberg went on to say that even though she didn’t always agree with Hochul’s plan, she at least knew what it was. “What is your plan, Lee Zeldin?” she asked.
Griffin then cut in, saying she’d be happy to lay out the Republican plan — and Goldberg shut her down, arguing that it only counted if it came from Zeldin.
Hostin added her two cents after that, appearing to blame at least some of the rising crime on Zeldin because he had “voted against the ban on semiautomatic weapons, and homicides are up.”
Hostin went on to claim that people only really cared about violent crime, adding, “They don’t care about broken window crimes, they really don’t care about that as much, they care about violent crimes.”
Griffin pushed back, noting that Zeldin himself had been the victim of an assassination attempt at a recent campaign stop — and Hostin appeared to shrug that off: “He’s hated, that’s true.”
Griffin’s reaction was immediate and visible. “Well, that’s not okay, though, that’s horrifying!” she exclaimed, throwing up her hands in protest.
Hostin backpedaled quickly, explaining, “No, I’m not saying it’s ok, but he is divisive …”
Griffin went on to note that in addition to the attack, a shooting had occurred just outside his home recently as well — while his teenaged daughters were inside the house. Goldberg dismissed that, saying, “That’s New York City right now.”