“The View” co-hosts called for gun control on Monday during a discussion about the assassination attempt against former President Trump.
“So I know everybody always says, it’s too soon to talk about guns, and we should, because there has been a terrible death of a father of two, that thoughts and prayers should be where we go. I say no. I say now is the time to talk about the common denominator when it came to this assassination attempt, is America’s fascination and obsession with owning guns,” liberal co-host Sunny Hostin said, after also condemning political violence.
Trump was shot in the ear on Saturday in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One attendee, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed, and two others were critically injured at the rally. The shocking attack is being investigated as an assassination attempt and an act of domestic terrorism, and the shooter’s exact motives remain unknown.
Hostin, a rabidly anti-Trump media voice, said she feared the attempt on his life would spark rhetoric about needing more “good guys with guns.”
Sunny Hostin demands gun control after the Trump assassination attempt during “The View” on Monday, July 15, 2024. (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)
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“I think gun ownership will probably, because of this event, go up in this country instead of going down, and that is my fear. I think we need to have an honest and real conversation about real gun control legislation,” Hostin added.
Ana Navarro, another staunchly anti-Trump host, also demanded action, invoking the race of the killer while doing so.
“I hope that at some point in this country, we do have a conversation about what is happening, because we can’t just react when it is our side. What was this again? It was a 20-year-old lone wolf, White whack job with easy access to a gun, and we have to have a conversation about that, because it wasn’t a drag queen. It wasn’t an immigrant. It wasn’t a pissed-off liberal woman, and this keeps happening, and we need to react not as left or right, not as Republicans or Democrats. We need to react as Americans, and we need to ask better,” Navarro said.
Co-host Joy Behar’s commentary focused heavily on the shooter, Thomas Matthew Brooks, who was killed by Secret Service shortly after he opened fire. She questioned why no one reported that a 20-year-old “White guy” had recently purchased 50 rounds of ammunition before his ambush.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was the victim of an assassination attempt. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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After a commercial break, Behar said the would-be assassin’s motive was unclear, adding, “nobody knows yet.”
Co-hosts Alyssa Farah Griffin and Navarro quickly condemned the assassination attempt in their commentary and both said they were grateful Trump was okay.
President Biden wished Trump well and condemned political violence of any kind in remarks after the shooting. He also called Trump the night of the attack.
Co-host Sara Haines praised Biden’s response to the assassination attempt, and she suggested it might prove to be a wake-up call for Donald Trump.
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“President Biden came out and did exactly what he should,” she said, adding, “We already heard that President Trump has changed his remarks at the RNC to have a more unifying tone. Stranger things have happened. People that have had illnesses or, you know, near-death experiences, sometimes that can be a wake-up call to change things.”