Leftist co-host of 'The View' likens the Proud Boys to Hamas, says they're both 'terror organizations'

Sunny Hostin, one of the leftist co-hosts of "The View," on Friday's program likened the Proud Boys to Hamas.

"I look at this from a legal perspective," Hostin, also an attorney, told the panel. "And I think that we all know that Hamas has been designated a terror organization — just like many other terror organizations have had this designation, like the Proud Boys here in the United States."

While the U.S. State Department designates only foreign entities as terror organizations, PBS noted that Canada in 2021 named the Proud Boys a terror group, and New Zealand followed suit in 2022.

It isn't clear if Hostin likened the Proud Boys to Hamas in order to dampen widespread condemnation against Hamas or to stick a finger in the eye of the Proud Boys or for some other purpose.

In a longer video from "The View" episode showing the panel in conversation, Hostin added — presumably in reference to Israel's response to Hamas' surprise attack — that international human rights law says that "retaliation against innocent civilians collectively is also terror and is also a war crime."

Other co-hosts seemed decidedly sympathetic toward Israel.

"Don't you think Hamas attacking Israel is the reason that they have the problem now?" Joy Behar asked.

Anna Navarro added, "What Israel is saying consistently is, 'If you want your water, if you want your electricity, release our hostages.' In my view ... that's not an irrational demand."

Hostin countered, "And they should, but in the process, they should really refrain from committing war crimes or terror because they're gonna lose the good will they have ..."

Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in, noting that U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Hamas is "worse than ISIS. There's no equivocating as far as the terror and the brutality. Beheading children. This is a group that you cannot reason with, there is not a diplomatic solution with Hamas ..."

Earlier in the discussion, Sara Haines said, "Hamas is to blame for all of the bloodshed happening right now" and that while Israel issues warnings for Gaza residents to evacuate, "Hamas says 'please stay' because they need them to up the body count. They don't care about their own lives — they're jihadists. They definitely don't care about your life or my life, and they would come for all of us."

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