Sunny Hostin used Monday’s episode of ABC’s The View to condemn President Donald Trump’s description of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as a jihadist, calling the remark Islamophobic and “despicable,” according to Breitbart’s account of the segment.
Hostin framed her criticism around El-Sayed’s resume and what she described as a pattern of attacks on his faith rather than his record. “I feel like he is one of the most qualified Senate candidates that we’ve seen in a long time,” she said, citing his medical degree from Columbia University, his time as a Rhodes Scholar, and a doctorate in public health from Oxford University.
She also praised his political instincts, saying he “does politics extremely well,” before turning to the controversy over his religion. “There has been these constant Islamophobic, these Islamophobic comments around his candidacy,” Hostin said. “Trump called him a jihadist.”
A Kennedy comparison
Hostin anchored her defense in a historical parallel to John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign, when Kennedy faced questions about whether his Catholic faith would shape his decisions in office. She said she “loved that comparison” because Kennedy answered by saying he was not running to be a Catholic president but “a president who happens to be Catholic.”
El-Sayed, she said, has made the same move: “I am running to be a senator who happens to be Muslim.”
The co-host argued the exchange should center on qualifications rather than religious identity, and she described the broader treatment of El-Sayed’s candidacy as a test of the country’s commitment to religious pluralism. “I think it’s out of line,” she said. “I think it’s out of pocket for our country to be a country where all religions aren’t welcome. I think it’s really despicable the way he’s been treated.”
The stakes of the remark
Trump’s use of the word “jihadist” in connection with a sitting Senate candidate marks an escalation in rhetoric that has followed El-Sayed’s campaign. Hostin’s response puts the daytime talk show at the center of that fight, and her invocation of Kennedy’s speech gives the criticism a bipartisan frame — casting the question as one about whether a candidate’s faith should be treated as disqualifying.
El-Sayed, a physician and former public health official, is seeking the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s open Senate seat. His campaign has drawn national attention in part because of his religion and his progressive policy positions, and the president’s remark has turned both into a broader argument about what kinds of candidates are treated as legitimate.
Hostin did not elaborate on the specific context in which Trump made the comment, and the segment as reported did not include a response from the White House or from El-Sayed’s campaign. The View co-host’s remarks were directed at the president’s language and at the reception El-Sayed has received, not at any particular policy dispute.
What comes next
Whether the exchange moves beyond a cable-news cycle depends largely on how El-Sayed’s campaign and Michigan voters respond. Hostin’s segment signals that the faith-based attacks on the candidate are becoming a defined line of criticism from prominent Democratic-leaning voices — and that the comparison to Kennedy’s 1960 speech may become a recurring reference point as the race develops.
For now, the co-host’s message was blunt: she called the treatment of El-Sayed “despicable” and said the country should be one “where all religions aren’t welcome” — a phrasing that drew its force from the contrast with the candidate’s credentials she had just listed.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/10/19/hostin-trump-calling-el-sayed-a-jihadist-is-islamophobic-and-despicable/