ABC’s Hostin: I Refuse to Give Trump ‘the Moniker of a Wartime President’

Thursday on ABC’s “The View,” co-host Sunny Hostin declared President Donald Trump did not deserve the “moniker of a wartime president” amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a clip, President Donald Trump said, “The big thing we did was a very early stoppage of people coming in who could be very, very heavily infected. That was a very good move, and it was very early, very, very early, when most people including a lot of professionals professional, they didn’t want us to do it, and it saved a lot of lives. I look at it. I view it as, in a sense, a wartime president. That’s what we’re looking at. It’s a very tough situation here.”

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg said, “I mean, he’s right to call this a war? Is he not?”

Hostin said, “I feel like recently you have the Senate passing this bill, the relief bill, the stimulus bill. I think people are now at a point where they’re realizing the severity of the situation. I’m very uncomfortable with this president saying he’s a wartime president because, in my view, last week, he said he wouldn’t take any responsibility for the significant delay in the country’s coronavirus testing capabilities. You have a president who is notorious for being a draft dodger when it came to Vietnam and, you know, getting these bone spur deferments, and to sort of reframe his legacy when it comes to the coronavirus response as a wartime president. I’m very uncomfortable with because wartime presidents take responsibility for their failures, and he has been unwilling to do that. I mean, if you look at any video of his responses from January up until even now, I think there’s been a lack of leadership.”

She continued, “I think language matters. I think it’s very important. I think his language matters. I think he tries to, you know, use language, and he uses language very effectively, and I refuse to allow him to call himself a wartime president.”

She added, “I think he’s the liar in chief, and I refuse to give him the moniker of a wartime president. He doesn’t deserve that.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN