Overview
- Sunny Hostin said on ABC’s The View that ‘‘the slaves basically emancipated themselves’’ and that many enslaved people left to join the Union Army, remarks that aired Wednesday during a Veterans Day segment.
- Co-host Whoopi Goldberg pushed back on air, saying Abraham Lincoln ‘‘busted his butt’’ to secure emancipation and deserved credit for taking steps that led to legal abolition.
- Right-leaning outlets amplified and condemned Hostin’s remarks as revisionist and racially provocative, and several also raised unverified claims about her ancestry and reparations with limited sourcing.
- Commentators flagged a separate factual error by Hostin about the Electoral College, noting the college only applies to presidential races and does not affect Senate elections.
- Historical records show the Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863, did not instantly end slavery but allowed Black enlistment in Union forces and set the stage for the 13th Amendment, while Lincoln’s past support for voluntary colonization to places like Liberia is a separate, nuanced part of his record.