'The View' co-host Sunny Hostin blasts Grammys' Kanye West ban: 'We have something called the First Amendment in this country'

Sunny Hostin, co-host on "The View," has announced that she doesn't agree with rapper Kanye West being excluded from the Grammys over his public conduct amid his ongoing divorce with reality star Kim Kardashian.

What's a very brief history here?

Last week, a spokesperson for the Recording Academy said that the group decided to remove West from the show's performance lineup over what was described as his "concerning online behavior" amid legal proceedings with Kardashian.

Instagram also suspended West for a 24-hour period over the last week for the same reason.

The rapper has also made headlines for featuring a likeness of Kardashian's current flame, comedian Pete Davidson, in a music video in which the Davidson likeness was assaulted and buried alive. He also hit out at Grammy's host Trevor Noah with a racial slur after Noah criticized the rapper's recent behavior.

What's happening now?

During Monday's broadcast, Hostin said that West — who is up for at least five Grammy awards this season — was being "stigmatized" due to his mental health, and that the Grammys should not have removed him from the lineup lest they stifle his creative speech.

“Performance is an art, and it's speech in many instances," she said. "Where do we draw the line? I believe in consequence culture, I don’t believe in cancel culture. And I feel that he is, because of the stigma of mental health, I think he is being stigmatized ... And bottom line is, people that are mentally ill — he’s been diagnosed with bipolar disorder — are much less likely to commit violence than have violence enacted upon them. I don’t know yet that he is this violent person that should be shunned from society, and his art taken away from him.”

Hostin added, "We have something called the First Amendment in this country. We have freedom of speech. We have freedom of expression, and we're cancelling Kanye West for something he may do."

Co-host Ana Navarro, however, disagreed with Hostin and argued that West is "not entitled to put people's lives in danger" just because he is a celebrity or because he has been diagnosed with a mental illness.

She also pointed out that she fully supported Instagram's suspension and said that she believed West was guilty of "inciting violence" and using "horrible racial slurs" on the social networking site.

"Do we all need to put up with this?" she added.