The View’s Sunny Hostin Questions Alleged Cornell sexual assault victim’s statement over ‘Voluntary intoxication’
Sunny Hostin is out on an island over the Cornell gang-rape case ... defending the seven accused frat bros and questioning how the story is being reported.
via: EW
The View cohosts have weighed in on the ongoing alleged Cornell University sexual assault case that has ignited an impassioned dialogue about women’s safety on college campuses and beyond.
After New York District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced Monday that “the case will be prosecuted in the most objective and impartial means available” over a woman alleging what Van Houten described as “a series of heinous and despicable acts committed by [seven] members of the Chi Phi fraternity,” the cohosts discussed fallout from the matter — including a lack of criminal charges following the woman’s initial 2024 complaint.
Moderator Joy Behar began Tuesday’s live episode of the talk show by introducing a Hot Topics discussion now that Van Houten is, as she said, “defending that decision now that the case has been reopened” in New York state, with Doe filing a lawsuit against the seven Ivy League students allegedly involved in the assault, the Chi Phi fraternity (the Xi chapter of which was later barred from campus), the university itself, and a nearby bar in Ithaca, N.Y.
“I don’t know how anyone doesn’t perceive that as being an invitation to rape,” former permanent cohost and current guest panelist Lisa Ling (filling in for Whoopi Goldberg) speculated of information that has come out about the alleged incident, involving a reported Snapchat thread that appears to show several fraternity members discussing sexual activity with an unidentified woman at the frat house. “Going over to the house to partake in what was being offered, I don’t understand how that’s not perceived as solicitation or intent to do harm.” (Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Van Houten’s office and Cornell University for comment.)
Former Donald Trump White House staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin added that “rape culture is something our country has grappled with for a long time,” and cited toxicity in the “manosphere” as contributing to a culture that she says doesn’t value women the way they should be.
“I want to know who saw those Snapchats and didn’t think the masculine thing to do right now is to see if this girl is okay. The masculine thing to do is to call the police. The masculine thing to do is to say, ‘Shut this down, this is dangerous, this is wrong,’” Griffin observed. “These men are still entitled to due process, and if they’re found guilty, I want them tried to the fullest extent of the law, I want them to get the consequences they deserve, because women who are victims of sexual assault will live the rest of their lives with the mental harm of that, with the physical harm of that. But, we do need to remember they’ve yet to have their day in court.”
Panelist Sara Haines added that she “can’t look at it with legal eyes,” and first looks upon the issue “as a parent” with concerns for how boys are raised — even though, as she said, “Your gut, when you read this, is, ‘Oh my god, let me protect my daughter,’ but honestly there’s a bigger responsibility in how we’re raising our sons.”
She also lamented that, allegedly, “there were people that read that that didn’t pick up a phone or get involved in the right way,” and urged viewers by telling them that “we need our men jumping up and saying this is not okay, more than ever” before.
Cohost Sunny Hostin, a former federal prosecutor who spent years trying sexual assault cases before her tenure at The View, told her colleagues that she thinks “it’s important to understand why the DA did not bring a case in 2024,” after reviewing Doe’s initial 2024 statement.
Hostin brought up that Doe “voluntarily drank a lot” and “voluntarily snorted ketamine off of one of the boys’ body parts” as what she felt was a questionable area for the plaintiff’s case.
“She allowed other boys and consented to other boys snorting ketamine off of her body, and under New York law, voluntary intoxication or drug use that merely impairs judgment does not legally constitute an inability to consent to sexual activity,” Hostin explained. “That means if you voluntarily ingest drugs, voluntarily take alcohol, you can agree to have threesomes — which, in her statement, she agreed to have two separate threesomes.”
Hostin continued: “One boy did walk in, one young man did walk in and say, ‘Everybody out,’ so there was one person that did that, and, according to her statement, three of the young men did not touch her. But, I say all of that to say the pictures of these young men who’ve not been charged, not been adjudicated, are being plastered all over the internet. I think people are reporting this story inaccurately, I think they’re reporting it unfairly. While this is something that we have to take very seriously, there is no way according to her statement in 2024, that any prosecutor would’ve brought forth a case.”
The panelist maintained, “I believe women,” and said she wasn’t indicating that “we shouldn’t believe her, but in 2024 she said one thing, and in 2026 she’s saying another thing.” (EW has reached out to Doe’s lawyer for a response.)
“I wonder why she’d even report this if she didn’t believe there was some criminality involved,” Ling asked Hostin after the latter finished. Griffin again jumped in, asking, “How can the law protect and argue that somebody who we know, when she arrived, had 10 drinks? How could you? This is the law, Sunny is absolutely right on this. How could you possibly consent? How could you be in a decision-making state?”
Haines doubled down on her prior stance, telling her peers that “all the legal talk comes after” in her mind.
“The most glaring thing I see is any and all of the men in that room or that came in or that were around or got that Snapchat, their humanity rings first, not the law,” Haines said. “Their humanity says, ‘Wow, this woman doesn’t seem to be awake right now, this would be wrong.’”
Hostin again said she’s only “dealing with the facts” and “not judging,” and that she “would hope that our young men don’t behave this way” because it’s “morally wrong” to do so.
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