Sunny Hostin, the liberal co‑host on The View, has opened up on a recent podcast about the infamous question she posed to Kamala Harris last year—one that’s been blamed by some for setting back Harris’s campaign. Despite standing by the fairness of the question, Hostin admits she felt “terrible” about its impact.
On the Behind the Table podcast, producer Brian Teta joked that Hostin had “single‑handedly taken down the Democratic Party” by asking Harris how she would have done things differently from President Biden. But Hostin contended the question was entirely reasonable—and something Harris should have anticipated.
The moment happened in early October 2024, when Harris appeared on The View. Hostin asked, “Is there anything you would have done differently than Biden over the course of the presidency?” Harris replied, “Not a thing comes to mind.” That answer didn’t land well—it was swiftly criticized and seen as a turning point in her campaign, given Biden’s unpopularity and voters’ need for a clear alternative.
Hostin said she knew right away Harris’s response would go viral. “I knew it instantly when she answered it,” she told Teta. “Which is why I asked the follow‑up question, ‘Is there one thing?’ Because I knew—I could see the soundbite and I knew what was going to happen—but I thought it was a really fair question and I thought it was a question that she would expect.”
She stressed that she had no intention of harming Harris’s campaign, having openly supported her and predicted a strong win. Hostin believes Harris simply missed an opportunity to differentiate her platform from Biden’s. She even brought up earlier remarks from CNN’s Jake Tapper about the fallout, saying, “And now Jake Tapper wrote it in his book?… I feel terrible.”
Teta asked if they thought that clip really cost Harris the election. Hostin looked at the audience and smiled, “No, right?” Co‑host Sara Haines concurred it wasn’t solely to blame, though Alyssa Farah Griffin felt it did play a role. Griffin shared her view that the Trump campaign exploited the moment mercilessly. “They used it to say, ‘Well, she’s not going to do anything different.’”
Democratic strategist James Carville was even harsher at the time, saying Harris “freezed” and lost her defining moment. “That is the one question that you exist to answer,” he said in November.
Discussing it later, Behar even quipped, “It’s Sunny’s fault she didn’t win.” But Hostin insisted on the podcast that she was merely surprised Harris failed to seize the chance: “I was surprised at the answer because it was a question that really could have inured to her benefit. It was a question that could have been a change maker.”
So that’s the story from Hostin’s perspective: she asked a fair question, saw the ripple effect soon after, and regrets the way things went—even if she still believes she asked what any journalist or voter would have.