The View's Sunny Hostin: Lindsey Graham 'Betrayed His Country for Power'

Nicholas Fondacaro
July 13th, 2026 4:47 PM

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Hysterical Sunny Hostin couldn’t bottle her crazy even for one day after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) passed away after succumbing to a sudden illness. After reading a screed from a rabid Graham hater, Hostin agreed that Graham had “betrayed his country for power and his decency for attention.” Luckily, other members of the cast were able to temper their rabid animus for Graham and even shared fond memories.

Hostin opened her nasty comments by suggesting Graham had died isolated from his friends after he chose to throw his lot in with President Trump. She even cited former The View cast member Meghan McCain:

I didn't know him well. He had been on this show several times. I remember speaking to Meghan McCain about him quite a bit, because she was very close to him and was very disappointed in the change she saw after John McCain died. But I think that he was certainly this political chameleon. And his legacy is complicated and people are speaking out about the very hypocrisy that you saw when he was John McCain's friend and when he became friends with Donald Trump.

Of course, Hostin mischaracterized Meghan McCain’s feelings about Graham. In a Washington Post column in which McCain reflected on her longtime friendship with Graham, she wrote:

The news of his death was shocking and deeply saddening for me and my family. Like many relationships in life, mine with Lindsey was complex in later years. I choose to remember the endless laughter and joy he brought to my family. These memories are some of the most precious of my life. I hope that he is at peace and I hope he is in heaven, drinking a White Russian and fishing with my dad and Joe [Lieberman].

 

 

Hostin continued to rail against Graham by citing the unhinged comments of former-Republican strategist Steve Schmidt and saying she agreed with his assessment that Graham was a traitor to the country he served:

Steve Schmidt, who's a political strategist and worked on the John McCain campaign in 2008, wrote just today: 'Lindsey knew better.' And he said, 'he was a lonely and unprincipled man who betrayed his country for power and his decency for attention.' That is someone that knew him. He also called him. 'a pilot fish, a smaller fish that hovers about a larger predator, like a shark, living off of its deleterious and that's Lindsey.'

(…)

When you're talking about a complicated legacy and someone who may have betrayed his country for power. That seems to be, in my view, what his legacy became.

Before Hostin smeared a dead man, former Republican strategist Ana Navarro spoke out against people like her:

First thing I want to say is, I saw a lot of posts online this week kind of celebrating his death and rejoicing. And listen, I know that Trump does that, he did it with Bob Mueller, he did it with John McCain (…) But it's inhumane and it's really lacking empathy. (…) The fact that Donald Trump is indecent doesn't mean the rest of us have to do it.”

“And so I think that for the benefit, for humanity, for having, you know, a normal decency towards the family of the dead, that just has to stop,” she said.

 

 

Navarro repeatedly mentioned how “freaking funny” Graham was and how he “was a good time” to be around. She recalled repeatedly telling him he was the most fun sober person she knew:

NAVARRO: Like, when I first met Lindsey, he didn't drink at all. He would like take sips of Baileys. Then he started drinking Riesling. But he was -

FARAH GRIFFIN: Those are such random drink choices.

HAINES: You always come in through the sweat drinks.

NAVARRO: I would say to him all the time, you are the most fun person I know sober than anybody I know drunk. Because he just -- he was hilarious.

 

 

Co-host Sara Haines, often a foil to Hostin, acted so again. Immediately following Hostin’s comments, Haines proclaimed: “So I'm going to echo Ana's sentiments that today the people that have passed aren't going to read the comments or hear it and the families that survive them and the friends and the people that worked for them remain here to hear what we say. So, I'm more of the thought that he is no longer at play.”

She was also disturbed by the dehumanizing rhetoric she was seeing online. “I did not know him at all. I didn't know really much about him. But it did disturb me that people were online saying things like, don't humanize him,” she recounted. “You don't have to humanize a human. He was a human.”

 

 

Of course, they couldn’t end the segment on a positive note. Instead, Goldberg needed to invoke God and suggested Graham may face some form of divine retribution for his politics and allowing Project 2025:

He was a complicated cat. And there's no getting around that. And some things, you know, I wish he really had paid more attention. Like, I love that he was all about the Ukraine -- but I wish he had stopped this one [President Trump] from trying to put together Project 2025. (…) And so, we make good choices, we make weird choices, and they're not all the choices people want us to make the way they want us to make 'em. And he lived with himself. And him and God will figure out whatever went on, okay?

 

 

Goldberg and Hostin should be more concerned with what they’ll have to answer for when they make it to the other side.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

ABC’s The View
July 13, 2026
11:03:03 a.m. Eastern

(…)

ANA NAVARRO: Well, I knew him very well. He was a friend of mine for many years. Frankly, through John McCain, who was his best friend and his mentor for many years.

First thing I want to say is, I saw a lot of posts online this week kind of celebrating his death and rejoicing. And listen, I know that Trump does that, he did it with Bob Mueller, he did it with John McCain --

SARA HAINES: He did it with Rob Reiner.

NAVARRO: He did it with Rob Reiner. But it's inhumane and it's really lacking empathy.

And the dead person is dead and can't hear you and can't read your posts, but his family, his sister who he adopted when he was 13 because both of their parents died is alive and is hearing it. And so I think that for the benefit, for humanity, for having, you know, a normal decency towards the family of the dead, that just has to stop.

The fact that Donald Trump is indecent doesn't mean the rest of us have to do it.

But as to Lindsey. Look, for me, there was a Lindsey before Trump and a Lindsey after Trump. There were two completely different Lindseys. This brought out all sorts of feelings in me because, honestly, I feel like I had buried Lindsey when John McCain died, because he became a completely different person.

And I get it. I get that it people are brokenhearted. I'm brokenhearted. I get it that people are disappointed in him. I'm disappointed in him.

I think Lindsey - For Lindsey, the Senate, his position was his life. He really felt that making a difference was everything for him, and he was going to do anything that it took for him to continue getting elected and having influence. And that took sucking up to Trump. And it meant that he did keep getting re-elected and he did have influence on issues that he cared enormously about, like foreign policy. He was a staunch, unwavering supporter of Ukraine, of Israel, on freedom in the western hemisphere, in places like Cuba, like Venezuela, like Nicaragua.

He was also so freaking funny! He was - I know it's a low bar, but he is the funniest politician I have ever, ever met. He was a son of the south, proud of being that, proud of his service in the military.

I think his legacy is complicated. I think Lindsey was marked by having lost both of his parents very early in his life. He then adopted his sister, who was 13, so that she could get his military benefits. And, I think that's why he needed this kind of like big brother, mentor, kind of like father figure. McCain at first and then Trump.

(…)

11:07:18 a.m. Eastern

SUNNY HOSTIN: I didn't know him well. He had been on this show several times. I remember speaking to Meghan McCain about him quite a bit, because she was very close to him and was very disappointed in the change she saw after John McCain died.

But I think that he was certainly this political chameleon. And his legacy is complicated and people are speaking out about the very hypocrisy that you saw when he was John McCain's friend and when he became friends with Donald Trump.

Steve Schmidt, who's a political strategist and worked on the John McCain campaign in 2008, wrote just today: 'Lindsey knew better.' And he said, 'he was a lonely and unprincipled man who betrayed his country for power and his decency for attention.' That is someone that knew him. He also called him. 'a pilot fish, a smaller fish that hovers about a larger predator, like a shark, living off of its deleterious and that's Lindsey.'

And so - And if you look at Lindsey's own words, in 2015, he calls Trump a ‘race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot.’ In 2016, he said, ‘if we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it.’ But then, January 6th, 2026, he calls him, ‘the greatest president of all time.’ And May 27, 2026, he says, ‘they should change the Nobel Prize to the Trump Prize.’ And then on June 9, 2026, he says, ‘Mr. President, you're not far behind God.’

NAVARRO: He'll have to explain it to God now.

HOSTIN: [Laughter] Yeah. When you're talking about a complicated legacy and someone who may have betrayed his country for power. That seems to be, in my view, what his legacy became.

HAINES: So I'm going to echo Ana's sentiments that today the people that have passed aren't going to read the comments or hear it and the families that survive them and the friends and the people that worked for them remain here to hear what we say. So, I'm more of the thought that he is no longer at play.

I did not know him at all. I didn't know really much about him. But it did disturb me that people were online saying things like, don't humanize him. You don't have to humanize a human. He was a human. So there were people that loved him, there were people that cared for him. And whether I disagreed with him completely or not, he's gone.

And so, my heart goes out to the people around him that are suffering. Some people posted some really cool posts, things I didn't know. Cory Booker posted about how he was his 'most unexpected friend' in Congress and they had worked on a bill together. And I think that’s the way --

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: The First Step Act.

HAINES: Yeah. The First Step Act.

I think that's how you honor someone. They're gone, they're no longer here. And they were saying, 'I just wanted to share this story.' I think that's the way a lot of people seek closure on the loss of someone. This was a colleague to many. And so, my heart goes to the family, the people that are going to have to suffer now. And so, I’ll just -

NAVARRO: I think he had a lot of bipartisan friendships.

HAINES: Yes.

NAVARRO: Because number one, he was an effective senator. He knew how to deal in the Senate. Also, Lindsey was a good time. Like, when I first met Lindsey, he didn't drink at all. He would like take sips of Baileys. Then he started drinking Riesling. But he was -

FARAH GRIFFIN: Those are such random drink choices.

HAINES: You always come in through the sweat drinks.

NAVARRO: I would say to him all the time, you are the most fun person I know sober than anybody I know drunk. Because he just -- he was hilarious.

(…)

11:12:48 a.m. Eastern

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Well, you know, look, all of these that I think so have been said are true. He was a complicated cat. And there's no getting around that. And some things, you know, I wish he really had paid more attention. Like, I love that he was all about the Ukraine -- but I wish he had stopped this one [President Trump] from trying to put together Project 2025. I wish -- you know what I mean?

So, you can have -- none of us is perfect. None of us. And so we make good choices, we make weird choices, and they're not all the choices people want us to make the way they want us to make 'em. And he lived with himself. And him and God will figure out whatever went on, okay?

But at this point in time, he's gone. God rest your soul. God rest your soul. I don't wish any bad on anybody. Even the ones you know I really should. But I don't.

And we'll be right back.

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