“The View” co-host Ana Navarro defended herself for being a Republican as she received criticism from fellow co-host Sunny Hostin during Monday’s panel.
Hostin told Navarro she cannot fathom how she is a Latina woman who left Nicaragua and still considers herself to be part of the Republican Party. The panel was discussing Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney threatening to leave the Republican Party if former President Donald Trump becomes the nominee.
“He [Trump] is the party now and that is a party of white supremacy, it is a party of fascism, it’s a party of all the things that are counter to our democracy and for Ana, one of my issues has always been, I don’t understand how a Latina woman who even left from Nicaragua could be part of a party—” Hostin said.
“Because when I came to this country, the Republican Party was the party that stood up against communism and that is something that is ingrained in me in the same way that being a Catholic is ingrained in you,” Navarro replied. “But listen, when Pope Benedict, who was part and parcel of covering up the pedophilia scandal in the church, was pope, you still stayed in the Catholic Church because there’s more to it.”
Hostin began to respond, saying she stopped going to church, before co-host Whoopie Goldberg brought the discussion back to the Republican Party. The Boston Globe initially exposed the coverup of the widespread abuse and pedophilia cases against underage boys conducted by priests in the U.S., and a 2004 report commissioned by the Church revealed more than 4,000 U.S. Roman Catholic priests had faced sexual abuse allegations in cases involving over 10,000 children, the majority of whom were boys, over the 50 years prior, BBC News reported. (RELATED: Conservative CNN Guest Calls Ana Navarro A ‘Republican By Convenience’ In Heated Exchange)
The two co-hosts have sparred over Navarro’s political affiliation in the past, and Navarro has repeatedly defended the history of the Republican party. Hostin accused Navarro of being the “only non-loca of the party” during a heated exchange April 1, “non-loca” being slang for a crazy person.
“Ana and I have this argument all the time, I always say why are you still a Republican?” Hostin said at the time.
“Why are you still a Catholic, you don’t agree with everything about the Catholic Church … Sunny, what party was Abraham Lincoln? Who helped pass the Voter’s Registration Act the first time?” Navarro hit back.
“The Republican Party that you loved doesn’t exist anymore,” Hostin said. “It’s the party of insurrectionists, it’s the party of traitors, white supremacists, it’s not the party that you loved.”
Navarro also said former President George W. Bush supported and earned the respect of the Hispanic community during a panel in mid-March, then accused the Democratic Party of “taking advantage” of Hispanic and Latino voters.
Navarro has been a harsh critic of the modern day Republican Party and conservative lawmakers more broadly despite her defense. She condemned some red states for banning or heavily restricting abortion, and compared them to the nations of North Korea and Cuba during a panel Aug. 1. She further argued in February 2021 that Senate Republicans will be “maligned in history” for not voting to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.