Sunny Hostin draws hostile backlash from viewers after likening white Republican women to ‘cockroaches’

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Sunny Hostin had more than a few impassioned words for white Republican women on Thursday’s episode of The View. When all was said and done, she likened them to cockroaches and the backlash was immediate. 

While discussing today’s political climate and President Biden’s warning of a democracy in peril, Sunny Hostin chimed in that gun reform, crime rates, and inflation aren’t her only concern. Her biggest worry going into the midterm elections is abortion rights. More accurately, white Republican women who vote against abortion rights. 

“What’s also surprising to me is the abortion issue. I read a poll just yesterday that white, Republican, suburban women are now going to vote Republican. It’s almost like roaches voting for Raid, right?”

Resident republication on the panel, Alyssa Farah Griffin, quickly came to her party’s defense, saying, “That’s insulting to the voter!” and she was correct. Shortly after Hostin’s words hit the news, the internet erupted in complaints. 

Nevertheless, Hostin stood by her guns. She claimed that any women supporting anti-choice politicians are “voting against their own self interest. Do they want to live in Gilead?” she said, referring to the fictional setting of Hulu’s hit series The Handmaid’s Tale. In the show, which is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood, women live in a totalitarian society where they are violently forced to give up their reproductive rights.

“I have that view. I am very surprised that white, Republican, suburban women are voting against their own healthcare. I have not really recently evolved on the issue. I’m Catholic, that’s my faith. I believe that abortion is wrong for me. There’s a separation between a government and church, and I do not have the right to tell someone else [what to do]. However, they are voting against their own self-interest.”

Hostin, who is a Democrat, has made her stance on abortion rights clear in the past, and it’s actually not where some might think. Following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade earlier this year, Hostin said, “I don’t believe in abortion, at any time,” even when that involves incest or rape. “No, I don’t. I don’t,” she insisted when pressed by fellow cohost Sara Haines. “That’s considered very radical for many people, and it’s because I’m Catholic and that’s my faith.”

Hardly ever free of political controversy, Hostin’s comments are just another notch in the belt for The View. Just last week Republication Ted Cruz was grilled on air, but unlike the public’s reaction to Hostin’s comments, that interaction was met with slightly more praise.