In the wake of last week’s CNN town hall event with former President Donald Trump, ABC “The View” host Sunny Hostin went on a tirade against CNN for allowing the broadcast, but Florida Republican Byron Donalds blasted Hostin for her “authoritarian” views and issued a challenge.
Hostin was railing against CNN’s decision to hold a town hall-styled event with Trump well ahead of last week’s broadcast. On the Thursday before the airing, she exploded at CNN for the coming show saying, “I don’t think that you give that type of person a platform. You don’t do that.”
Hostin continued her tirade a day after the CNN broadcast, too, slamming her own co-hosts for interrupting her screed against Trump and CNN.
“I think that you don’t give a bigot, a racist, a misogynist, a liar, a cheater, a sexual abuser, and a defamer a platform of 3 million people, and I’m saddened,” she stated, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Hostin was also infuriated that CNN host Anderson Cooper defended the Trump town hall.
Cooper expressed the notion that we need to listen to the other side of the political debate, even if we find it outrageous. “You have every right to be outraged today and angry and never watch this network again. But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?”
“If we all only listen to those we agree with, it may actually do the opposite,” he concluded.
For her part, Hostin was disgusted by that line of reasoning.
“I used to work for CNN for quite some time, Anderson Cooper has been my friend for over 20 years, and I’m saddened that he tried to gaslight me yesterday,” Hostin carped after Cooper warned people not to live in a political bubble, according to Entertainment Weekly. “We know who this man is, we learned who this man is, and we did not need to see what we saw. I think that that town hall will be studied in journalism schools around the country as to what not to do. It was not fact-checked appropriately.”
Oddly, even Hostin’s normally equally extremist left-wing cohost, Joy Behar, noted that if Trump was going to be the GOP nominee, CNN sort of has to engage with him at some point.
But with Hostin’s viewpoint made clear, Rep. Donalds, a two-term Republican congressman from Florida, found himself aghast at her attacks on CNN for airing the Trump town hall and was shocked over her clear authoritarianism.
In a visit with Fox News, Donalds blasted Hostin but also issued a challenge.
“Sunny Hostin and people on the left like her, that demonstrates her authoritarian mindset. Where she wants to tell everybody she believes in democracy, well part of our democracy is being able to speak and not being shut down,” Donalds told Fox.
“Sunny doesn’t want that and unfortunately too many people on the left, they don’t want a debate, they don’t want to have all voices heard, they want to pick and choose who gets heard. That’s an authoritarian mindset,” he added.
And in his tweet of the video, Rep. Donalds added, “Sunny and people on the Left like her demonstrate the authoritarian mindset of shutting down their opposition and choosing who has a voice. The party of ‘saving democracy’ is really the party of authoritarianism.”
He also issued a challenge, saying, “Sunny, invite me to The View and let’s talk.”
.@sunny and people on the Left like her demonstrate the authoritarian mindset of shutting down their opposition and choosing who has a voice. The party of “saving democracy” is really the party of authoritarianism.
Sunny, invite me to The View and let’s talk. pic.twitter.com/FVzMnBJ0Ro
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) May 13, 2023
Donalds didn’t deliver his position only on Fox. He also took his points to CNN itself when he joined a panel to discuss the Trump broadcast and blasted CNN for its focus on anything but the years since Trump left office. He noted that Americans don’t care about 2020. They want to talk about the fentanyl crisis, crime, the price of gas and groceries, and all the other troubles Biden has inflicted on America.
The American people aren’t speaking about the 2020 election, a liable case after 25+ years, or January 6th.
They are talking about the price of gas/groceries, fentanyl killing Americans 18-45, crime in the streets, & the fear of WWIII.
CNN’s top issues aren’t America’s. pic.twitter.com/jk4QlHO7L5
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) May 11, 2023
Donalds is an eloquent speaker for the GOP position, so it seems unlikely that Hostin and the hosts of “The View” will accept his challenge. But the Republicans need more people like Donalds speaking out to offer opposition to the long march of the far left.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.