Sunny Hostin Disgusted By “Cowardly,” “Despicable” Mark Esper’s Book: “Tired of this Ridiculous Apology Tour”

Not long after Ana Navarro tore into Dr. Deborah Birx on The View, Sunny Hostin is slamming another former Trump White House official for being complicit in the train wreck of an administration. Hostin blasted Donald Trump‘s Secretary of Defense Mark Esper for being “cowardly” in front of his former employee, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was guest co-host on Tuesday’s episode of The View.

Hostin didn’t hold back during a conversation about Esper’s recent remarks about his time in the White House, including his accusations that Trump wanted to bomb Mexico and suggested shooting protestors. While Esper admitted in a Monday Fox News interview that he thought Trump was “a threat to democracy,” Hostin and her co-host Joy Behar both said his admission came too late, and should have happened while he was in the White House.

“Esper came out too late, just like Dr. Birx. [He] could have saved a lot of lives,” Behar said. Griffin piped up to defend Esper, replying, “If all the people of good faith who were public servants who cared about America left, it would have been filled with little Steve Bannons, people who do not have the best interests.”

But Griffin’s reasoning wasn’t strong enough to sway Hostin, who insisted, “They should have said something,” before slamming Esper’s book release and recent comments as “a cowardly action.”

“I’m tired of this ridiculous apology tour. I’m sorry, Alyssa, I’m sick of it! I’m sick of people now coming out and trying to sell a book,” Hostin said. “The reason he is even speaking now is because he’s trying to make money, and I think that is cowardly, I think it’s despicable.”

She continued, “The other thing that is just fascinating to me is that we have true heroes, true patriots, like Alexander Vindman, who testified during the 2019 impeachment and told us what happened with Ukraine, a country that is now being mercilessly attacked by Putin.”

Vindman served as Director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council before he resigned from his position in 2020.

As Griffin tried to reply to Hostin, she completely shut the conservative commentator out, continuing, “I’m sure your former boss, who you’re so proud of, knew all about Ukraine, knew all about what was going on and said nothing!”

When Griffin did speak up, she defended Esper, whom she said “fought to get aid released to Ukraine,” but Hostin was once again unconvinced by her words. Hostin asked Griffin repeatedly, “Did he testify?” to which she replied, “He wasn’t asked to testify.”

After Hostin continued to push her, asking, “Did he tell us anything?” Griffin said, “We were on the record at the time at [the Department of Defense] that the aid needed to be released,” but Hostin had made up her mind.

“No. He doesn’t get a pass,” she said definitively.

“It’s not about a pass, so much as the idea that everyone of good faith should have just stepped down while Trump was still the commander in chief—” Griffin said, before Behar cut in to emphatically say, “Not stepped down. Spoke up.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.