Sunny Hostin Walks Back Support for Platner, Craves Victory for Dems

Nicholas Fondacaro
July 8th, 2026 4:35 PM

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Someone at ABC News or Disney might have had words with The View’s Sunny Hostin after she doubled down on supporting Maine’s Democratic Party Nazi Graham Platner following an allegation of sexual assault. She walked back that support on Wednesday’s show and made it clear she wanted her Democratic Party to pick a new candidate soon because she still felt the state was in play.

It was obvious the allegations didn’t matter to Hostin, only how well a candidate could do against incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins.

In their discussion about Platner wanting to be the one to handpick his replacement, Hostin wasn’t having it. “He can't have any say in his replacement. I agree with you. I think that's ridiculous and I think it's clear that he is -- he has to step down,” she proclaimed.

Hostin’s chief concern wasn’t about keeping yet another accused rapist and accused domestic abuser out of political power, it was about making sure Democrats could take control of the Senate and get President Trump:

The party has until July 27th to actually nominate a new person. And he's got to get out because I really do believe that Maine is in play. I do believe that Susan Collins is beatable. And I think once they just have the right candidate with all the appropriate information, the Democrats really could take that seat and that's a very important seat. The Democrats need four seats to take the majority over and it's - it’s - we're in an existential crisis!

“We need to flip the Senate,” Hostin added. Joy Behar chimed in with her own plea: “It’s urgent. It’s urgent.”

 

 

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin gawked at exactly how badly the Democrats had bungled the vetting of Platner:

I'm just struck by how Dems botched this so badly though. Because to your point, like the path to Dems taking the Senate I think always ran through Maine. That was always going to be one of the important pickup seats. They had six years to recruit against Susan Collins and to vet somebody and look into their past statements and to look into the tattoos that they might have.

She even accused Democratic consultants of absolutely knowing about all of Platner’s dirty laundry and continuing to push him as an option anyway:

And this is where consultants did know. I think that lot of people who are making a lot of money around him knew. There were whisper, now there’s reports that he had issues with women and people kept saying, ‘no, no, no, look away.’

 

 

Moderator Whoopi Goldberg tried to defuse Farah Griffin’s criticism of Democrats by seemingly trying to falsely claim The View had rang warning bell about him. “We talked about it months ago so people did know and they held their nose -- we talked about that as well,” she said.

She then argued that Maine voters didn’t listen to them and blamed Trump for Platner winning the Democratic Primary (Click “expand”):

GOLDBERG: You know what, I don't know. Given what's happened just in our world right now, how the country -- who's in charge of it, I think people held their nose and said, ‘I'm going to take a step.’

HOSTIN: I don't know that they knew about the rape.

GOLDBERG: You know what, apparently even when people know about these things they still elect people.

In addition to that nonsense, Goldberg ridiculously claimed that no president had ever accepted a gift from a foreign government:

You know, this election that’s coming up, at least in my opinion, is going to highlight a lot of things because there lot of things that have happened. No longer can we accept the fact that, you know, no president is allowed to accept from foreign leaders anything, should not be allowed. (…) That has to become abnormal behavior again.

 

 

Nearly all presidents have received gifts from foreign leaders. In 2015, CNN even ranked “The 12 best gifts world leaders gave the Obamas.” The gifts either end up in the National Archive or get loaned out to the president’s respective libraries or other museums.

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

ABC’s The View
July 8, 2026
11:11:15 a.m. Eastern

(…)

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: You know, this election that’s coming up, at least in my opinion, is going to highlight a lot of things because there lot of things that have happened. No longer can we accept the fact that, you know, no president is allowed to accept from foreign leaders anything, should not be allowed.

SARA HAINES: Like planes.

GOLDBERG: Planes, crypto, condos.

JOY BEHAR: There is an emoluments clause that --

GOLDBERG: There is.

BEHAR: They don't follow it.

GOLDBERG: But this has become normal, and we the people have to put that back to being abnormal.

MULTIPLE CO-HOSTS: Yeah.

GOLDBERG: That has to become abnormal behavior again.

[Applause]

GOLDBERG: You know. There's so many things that we are -- that we are really going to be voting on this time around. And so I think it's -- I think there are changes coming.

(…)

11:20:50 a.m. Eastern

HOSTIN: No, I - I - I - He can't have any say in his replacement. I agree with you. I think that's ridiculous and I think it's clear that he is -- he has to step down. The issue is he's got to step down I believe by July 13th. If not -

BEHAR: Today’s the 8th.

HOSTIN: - they don't get the opportunity to appoint someone else, the Democratic National Committee in Maine. He's just --

BEHAR: Why? They have time.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: It's just under the state’s law to get them on the ballot.

HOSTIN: It's just under the state’s law. The party has until July 27th to actually nominate a new person. And he's got to get out because I really do believe that Maine is in play. I do believe that Susan Collins is beatable. And I think once they just have the right candidate with all the appropriate information, the Democrats really could take that seat and that's a very important seat. The Democrats need four seats to take the majority over and it's - it’s - we're in an existential crisis!

BEHAR: It’s urgent. It’s urgent.

HOSTIN: We need to flip the Senate.

FARAH GRIFFIN: I'm just struck by how Dems botched this so badly though. Because to your point, like the path to Dems taking the Senate I think always ran through Maine. That was always going to be one of the important pickup seats. They had six years to recruit against Susan Collins and to vet somebody and look into their past statements and to look into the tattoos that they might have.

I mean, listen, Texas just nominated a lunatic in Ken Paxton so like it's not like the other party isn't guilty of this as well. But when the stakes are so high and when the path to the Senate runs through this, how are they not able to find this?

And this is where consultants did know. I think that lot of people who are making a lot of money around him knew. There were whisper, now there’s reports that he had issues with women and people kept saying, ‘no, no, no, look away.’

GOLDBERG: We talked about it months ago so people did know and they held their nose -- we talked about that as well. Held their nose and said --

HOSTIN: They held their nose and voted for-

[Crosstalk]

HAINES: But they didn't have the rape accusation.

GOLDBERG: You know what, I don't know. Given what's happened just in our world right now, how the country -- who's in charge of it, I think people held their nose and said, ‘I'm going to take a step.’

HOSTIN: I don't know that they knew about the rape.

GOLDBERG: You know what, apparently even when people know about these things they still elect people.

HOSTIN: Well, that is true. That is true.

[Applause]

(…)

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