HOME / ENTERTAINMENT / TV

'The View': Joy Behar questions Sunny Hostin for 'prosecuting' Amy Klobuchar over her record as county attorney

Behar interrupted her co-host Hostin when her line of questioning continued to focus on Klobuchar's record as a county prosecutor in Minnesota

'The View' on Tuesday saw Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar appear on the show through satellite and after initially answering soft balled questions, the senator was questioned by co-host Sunny Hostin "for disproportionately harming black and brown people" while she was a county prosecutor in Minnesota.

When Hostin took over the interview, she began by noting, "you need African-American support to become the Democratic nominee."

She continued, "Your tough on crime approach when you were a county attorney in Minnesota is criticized for disproportionately harming black and brown people, and when I look at that record, you know, you failed to prosecute a single killing by the police during the eight years you headed prosecutions and there were more than two dozen police-involved killings in that period."

This line of questions continued as Hostin added, "How do you defend that record?"

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate responded by saying, "We all know there is systematic racism in this criminal justice system, there's no doubt about that. But there is so much more work that we have to do and that's why when I got to the U.S. Senate, I started working on things like the First Step Act, which we passed, which has decreased the criminal penalties and allowed some nonviolent offenders to get out of prison."

Hostin continued to question Klobuchar further and she brought up the prosecution of 16-year-old Myon Burrell. The teenager was prosecuted on murder charges and is currently serving life sentence, however, recent evidence indicate that Burrell could be innocent.

Klobuchar then responded, "It gives me no pleasure to say this because as you know, I was a prosecutor as well. I have reviewed the facts of that case, and it is one of the most flawed investigations and prosecutions that I think I have ever seen." 

Hostin didn't seem to let up and continued to press the senator about the specifics of the case and even asked what Klobuchar planned to do as a woman who had power and that was when moderator Joy Behar jumped in from off-screen and asked Hostin, "Are we prosecuting Amy Klobuchar today?"

Hostin than ceded the floor to Meghan McCain, but not before the senator added, "I look forward to coming into the studio, Sunny and I can talk more.” 

At that, Behar responded, "She’s tough. Sunny Hostin is tough."

In the meanwhile, the episode also saw Behar and Hostin speak about Democrat Michael Bloomberg's growing momentum but failed to comment on audio from 2015 that leaked on Monday in which Bloomberg pushed for targeting minorities.  

In the audio, Bloomberg is heard saying, "Ninety-five percent of your murders, murderers and murder victims, fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city. And that’s where the real crime is. You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of people that are getting killed."