Sunny Hostin says she was wrong to call Donald Trump an 'illegitimate president'

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'The View' host Sunny Hostin says she was wrong to call Trump an 'illegitimate president'

"The View" host Sunny Hostin said Wednesday she was "wrong" to call former president Donald Trump an "illegitimate president" after he was elected in 2016. 

"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin apologized on Wednesday for calling former President Donald Trump an "illegitimate president" after he won the 2016 election during a discussion about Democrats denying election results. 

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg defended White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during Wednesday's episode of the ABC daytime talk show after Jean-Pierre was asked during Tuesday's press briefing about a tweet that said the former president stole the election in 2016. 

"She was part of moveon.org, she was not an elected official. She was doing her part as an American citizen saying how she felt about an election," Goldberg said. "This is apples and basketballs." 

Hostin said that when Trump won in 2016, people were so shocked that many believed the election must have been stolen. 

Sunny Hostin said Wednesday that she was wrong to call former President Donald Trump an "illegitimate president." (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)

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"I will say that when Trump became president, I think people were so very shocked, even considering the Electoral College and that sort of thing. The assumption was, at least mine, and I’ll speak for myself, that Russia must have been involved because we knew that from the Mueller report that Russia had some involvement, Russia thought that it could benefit from a Trump presidency, which it did by the way. I remember calling him an illegitimate president, and that was wrong. I should not have said that. Because he was not an illegitimate president," Hostin said. 

Co-host Joy Behar asked, "Why?" 

Goldberg contended Hostin had every right to call the former president illegitimate. 

"However, he remains a twice-impeached, disgraced, one-term president," Hostin added. 

Former President Donald Trump claps as the crowd cheers him on during a rally in Washington Township, Michigan, on April 2, 2022. (REUTERS/Emily Elconin)

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Behar said that there was "good reason" to investigate Russia's involvement in the 2016 election and read a statement from the committee that ran that investigation: "The committee found that the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 election." 

Hostin clarified that the Trump campaign did not engage with the Russians. "That's where I think I was wrong," she said. 

"You don't know that, you don't know that he wasn't talking to Putin," Behar claimed. Hostin reiterated that there was an investigation and that people should believe the FBI and the Department of Justice. 

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 6, 2022. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) 

Fox News' Peter Doocy asked Jean-Pierre on Tuesday about a tweet she posted in 2016 that said Trump had stolen the election. 

Jean-Pierre called the comparison "ridiculous," but also said she knew the question was coming.