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The View in Review

Sunny Hostin Defends Elon Musk: 'He's Helping Save the World'

Suffice it to say Sara Haines and Joy Behar didn't agree.
posted by Claire Spellberg Lustig
Wednesday 12/15/2021 at 12:08PM EST
  • Sunny Hostin was the odd woman out as she defended Elon Musk this morning. (Photos: ABC)
    Sunny Hostin was the odd woman out as she defended Elon Musk this morning. (Photos: ABC)

    With Whoopi Goldberg absent due to COVID protocols — the longtime moderator, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, was in close contact with someone who tested positive, but tested negative earlier today — The View operated with just a three-person panel this morning, but that didn't stop the ladies from making headlines. In a surprising move, Sunny Hostin defended Elon Musk, the TIME Person of the Year, after Joy Behar and Sara Haines insisted he's undeserving of the honor. "I think he's helping save the world," said Hostin, citing his commitment to fighting climate change. "He's a different type of gazillionaire."

    Until Hostin chimed in, The View's Elon Musk debate was as predictable as they come. While Behar insisted she's "not getting a Tesla because of" Musk's Twitter feud with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (after she called him out for not paying taxes, he linked to a Fox News article about her claim of Native American heritage), Haines backed up Warren. "People resort to name-calling when they can't win the argument on merit," she said. "[Warren] was saying something that was accurate, that the tax code was broken, and that's a problem. That is known to everyone ... We all know it's broken. Don't take it personally!"

    However, Hostin is willing to overlook Musk's tax avoidance given his investment in fighting climate change. "I know he's deeply unpopular around the world, but if you think about the work he has done," said the left-leaning co-host. "He has, sort of, reshaped life on this planet in terms of climate change. Not only for his work in space, but also for his work on electric cars."

    "He's, I think, given about $100 million to climate change, to find ways to remove carbon from the air or water," continued Hostin. "When you think about those good things that he's done, I think that's really important. I think that's very different from some of the other billionaires in the space. If you think that climate change is the greatest existential threat that we're facing, he's addressing that. So, yes, not paying taxes, but doing that."

    In a complete flip of the usual script, Haines responded that Musk's large-scale investment is well and good, "but how about helping some people?" She added, "$290 billion? For generations your entire family could never spend that money, and there are people that cant' eat today."

    "I think he's helping save the world," replied Hostin, as Behar yelled, "Just pay your taxes!" from across the table.

    Things only got weirder from there. "Whoever tried to save the democracy deserves the face of TIME Magazine, and that would be Mike Pence, who, under duress —" said Behar. When Haines interrupted to remind her that Pence "took a call from Dan Quayle" before he voted to certify the 2020 election results, Behar agreed, saying, "Okay, let's give it to Dan Quayle, then."

    Elsewhere on The View... Joy Behar shared that Ana Navarro's mother passed away yesterday after a long illness. The co-hosts offered kind thoughts to Navarro, who was unable to be with her mother at the time of her passing due to the political instability in Nicaragua. As Behar explained, viewers will next see Navarro on Friday's holiday episode, as it was taped earlier this week.

    Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.

    TOPICS: Sunny Hostin, ABC, The View, Elon Musk, Joy Behar, Sara Haines


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