Podcaster Joe Rogan called The View a ‘rabies infested henhouse’ after one of its hosts described a black author as a ‘charlatan’ and ‘pawn of the right.’
Coleman Hughes was dressed down by co-host Sunny Hostin when he appeared on the daytime talk program last week to promote his new book.
The CNN analyst wrote in The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America that people shouldn’t define themselves by their race.
But Hostin criticized the thesis of his book as ‘fundamentally flawed’ and ‘something that the right has co-opted’.
‘So many in the black community… believed that you are being used as a pawn by the right and that you are charlatan of sorts,’ she said.
Podcaster Joe Rogan called The View a ‘rabies infested henhouse’ after one of its hosts called a black author a ‘charlatan’ and ‘pawn of the right’
Coleman Hughes looks bemused as he is dressed down by co-host Sunny Hostin when he appeared on The View last week to promote his new book
Hughes, an independent who has voted for Democrats, defended his stance against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) diktats, and appeared to have the support of the studio audience, who cheered many of his answers.
Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar also behaved respectfully towards him, with Goldberg seemingly keen to provide additional historical context to explain why some people believe DEI measures are useful in combatting racism.
On Wednesday, he went on Rogan’s podcast and spent part of the three-hour interview addressing the on-air clash with Hostin.
Rogan dismissed The View as a ‘rabies-infested henhouse’ that frequently goes viral when its hosts said ‘ridiculous things’ that viewers ‘love to hate.’
He added that Hostin appeared intelligent on the panel, but was ‘ideologically captured’ and part of a show that operates in a ‘very specific ideological bubble.’
Hughes said he didn’t really know who Hostin was before he went on the show and didn’t expect his character to be attacked on-air.
‘I wasn’t expecting necessarily for her to kind of try to ambush me in that way and attack my character in that way,’ he said.
‘I responded to it in the moment as I do, and I didn’t expect it to go as viral as it did, but I think it arguably went more viral than anything I’ve ever done.’
Hostin criticized the thesis of his book as ‘fundamentally flawed’ and ‘something that the right has co-opted.’
Hostin also accused Hughes of being ‘a conservative,’ claiming he self-identified as such in another interview and doubling down when he corrected her.
‘I don’t think there’s any evidence I’ve been co-opted by anyone and I think that that’s an ad hominem tactic that people use to not address really the important conversations we’re having here,’ he replied.
‘I think it’s better and it would be better for everyone if we stuck to the topics rather than make it about me without any evidence that I’ve been co-opted.’
He said he was an independent who had only voted twice, both for Democrats, and may have supported for a ‘compelling’ Republican against Biden, but not Trump.
Hughes told Rogan he thought the interview went viral because ‘you very rarely see someone who gets a character attack on calmly expose it as evidence-free and then just move back to the topic.’
Hughes also discussed that point with Racket News, saying it was clear Hostin had ‘no idea what she was talking about.’
‘I know [Hostin] said that I identified as a conservative, which was surprising to me because unless I blacked out, I don’t remember that,’ he said.
‘She was very confident about it. I almost gaslighted myself. I thought, ‘Did I forget something I said on a podcast?”
Huges added he still wasn’t sure where Hostin got the idea he was ‘a pawn of the right.’
‘Maybe I’ve got the Koch brothers moving me like a puppet, pumping money into my bank account in some way,’ he speculated she may have believed.
‘And that has compromised my judgment, or rather really my honesty, it’s compromised my intellectual honesty in some way.’
On Wednesday, Hughes went on Rogan’s podcast and spent part of the three-hour interview addressing the on-air clash with Hostin
Hughes, in discussion with co-host Whoopi Goldberg, elaborated that his argument in his book was more of an idea to strive for
Hughes also noted the audience seemed to be on his side during the segment, and co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin stuck up for him.
‘I don’t know that I changed minds, or if it’s more that the show uncovered that there are a lot of liberals that agree with what I’m saying,’ he said.
Hughes explained his thesis on The View last week as being that people should ‘treat people without regard to race’.
‘A lot of people equate color-blindness to “I don’t see race” or pretending not to see race,’ he said.
‘That’s a big mistake. We all see race, right? And we’re all capable of being racially biased so we should all be self-aware to that possibility.
‘My argument is not for that, my argument is we should try our vest best to treat people without regard to race, both in our personal lives and public policy.’
Hughes said the reason he wrote the book was that in the past 10 years, the US got too ‘woke’ about how it taught race in schools.
‘It became popular to in the name of anti-racism, teach a kind of philosophy to our children, and in general, that says your race is everything,’ he said.
‘I think that is the wrong way to fight racism and that’s why I wrote this book.’
Hughes, in discussion with co-host Whoopi Goldberg, elaborated that his argument was more of an idea to strive for.
‘It’s an ideal, it’s a north star and the point is not that we’ll ever get there or touch it, but we have to know where we’re going forward and backwards – and we’re going backwards.’