“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin said Monday that it was time for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to “start talking” about implementing a no-fly zone over Ukraine in order to stop Russian planes from attacking civilian targets from the air.
Despite concerns voiced by President Joe Biden’s administration — and members of both parties — that implementing a no-fly zone would be a dramatic escalation between NATO countries and Russia, Hostin argued that it made sense to think about it because the United States had been part of such actions in the past.
WATCH:
Utterly oblivious to the consequences and the dangers of enforcing it, The View's Sunny Hostin demands a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
And she seems to think NATO is already at war with Russia. pic.twitter.com/mgJLwCxK1g— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 7, 2022
Hostin mentioned comments from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) — who said that when it came to stopping Russia, nothing should be off the table — and noted that, for once, she agreed with him.
“I rarely — I think that Manchin has been, you know, so obstreperous when it comes to the Biden administration’s plans, but I think he’s right about this,” Hostin said. “I don’t think we can at this point seeing the devastation in Ukraine, seeing — I saw this photo this weekend of a family of four trying to flee, and they were just killed by shelling.”
“I really, you know, felt that at that point, we have to do something when you are seeing whole families, generations being taken out by Russia, and it feels like just with impunity, and I think what Manchin was saying is we can’t take anything off the table, and you and I agreed on this last week in terms of, you know, the oil sanctions,” Hostin continued. “I mean, even Jonathan Karl, our colleague and friend said on the ‘This Week’ program that it’s extraordinary that the Biden administration is sanctioning everything but Russian oil which is the thing that drives their economy. It is the thing that drives their economy. If you are going to sanction Russia, sanction that, you know, sanction the oil.”
“And in terms of the no-fly zone, we’ve done it before. We did it in Iraq. We did it in Bosnia. We did it in Libya, and we did it because we had a coalition,” Hostin added. “There is such a strong — there’s such strength in numbers. There’s such strength in coalitions and this is NATO we’re talking about. I think that it’s time now to start talking about the no-fly zone because when will Putin stop?”
Co-host Sara Haines pointed out that Ukraine was not a NATO member nation — which made things more complicated if a NATO country like the United States were to engage in implementing a no-fly zone — particularly without the consent or cooperation from other NATO countries.
“You have to get that consensus from NATO to do it or you’re kind of in a bad faith act being part of that organization of 30 nations,” Haines said, adding, “I tend to see what Ana is saying. We’re the most powerful nation in the world. We’re a wealthy nation, and I feel like there’s not a good answer here because the no-fly zone makes sense. In the beginning I thought, why aren’t we just doing it? He’s tempting us to do it. One aircraft comes across to shoot and that’s active war and we’re in a war.”
“Aren’t they already in a war?” Hostin asked.
“That’s what I mean. The other side of that is we’re understandably afraid of a nuclear war, but right now he’s firing at nuclear plants. So is it not going to be nuclear regardless?” Haines continued. “Like, I don’t know where you go from here.”
Haines went on to say that the only real option seemed to be to keep pushing with sanctions and other restrictions in the hopes that forcing Russia to crumble under their weight would influence Putin to stop.
“You have companies jumping in right now, Visa, Netflix, TikTok, MasterCard, you name it. One by one, everything is falling,” she said. “That squeeze has to be felt eventually, but I don’t know if it will be in time because right now every day we’re watching so many people die.”