OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
4:12 PM – Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Sunny Hostin, co-host of ABC’s “The View,” said she feels “unsafe” in communities with American flags “all over,” as celebrations take place across the United States ahead of America’s Semiquincentennial, the nation’s 250th anniversary.
“I think unfortunately in this country, people have different lived experiences. So while some may have a lived experience like … it is the best country in the world,” Hostin stated in an episode that aired on Monday.
She then brought up “Patriot Front,” a group she described as “a White nationalist organization founded in 2017” that promoted “an ultra-nationalist ideology that focuses on creating a White ethno-state in the United States with the ultimate goal of reshaping American society to align with their vision of racial and cultural homogeneity.”
Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) demanded that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform launch an investigation into the group’s funding after about 400 members marched through parts of Washington, D.C. The group wore khaki pants, navy blue shirts, white face coverings and hats and carried both Confederate flags and upside-down American flags.
“As a Black woman, I’m sitting there in my country, and that’s the type of fear I have to experience,” Hostin said.
She continued, “I walk into a community and I see American flags all over the community and I suddenly feel unsafe because there is a section of this country that has co-opted the American flag and they equate being an American or an American flag with White supremacy. And that should never be ever the symbol of White supremacy, but they have weaponized [it].”
Inverted flags were previously waved by D.C. residents who opposed President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to the capital city last September. Anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters also waved an upside-down flag outside of Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark in June.
“It belongs to all of us,” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in, referring to the stars and stripes.
Hostin agreed, adding “it does belong to all of us.”
These comments came after actress and guest host Michelle Buteau questioned why certain groups would even celebrate the 250-year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s signing.
“When you say this is the best nation — the best nation for who?” she asked rhetorically.
“Yeah, the best nation for who?” Hostin jumped in.
“If we are celebrating 250 years — what are we exactly celebrating is what I want to know,” Buteau continued.
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