“The View” host Sunny Hostin may not agree with Kanye West’s social media posts, but she doesn’t think he should be banned from performing at the Grammys because of them. On Monday’s episode, Hostin argued that West is being “stigmatized” because of his mental health.
Though West is nominated for five Grammys this year, a rep for the rapper confirmed to TheWrap a report that was first in The Blaze on Thursday saying that the Recording Academy “unfortunately” decided to pull him from the show “due to what they deem to be concerning online behavior.”
Last week, West was suspended from Instagram for 24 hours for posts targeting his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson and “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah. On Monday, Hostin noted that she is “uncomfortable” with his being banned from the show, arguing that he still has a right to free speech, and the social media platforms themselves took action.
“Where do we draw the line? I believe in consequence culture, I don’t believe in cancel culture. And I feel that he is, because of the stigma of mental health, I think he is being stigmatized,” she said. “And bottom line is, people that are mentally ill — he’s been diagnosed with bipolar disorder — are much less likely to commit violence than have violence enacted upon them. I don’t know yet that he is this violent person that should be shunned from society, and his art taken away from him.”
Noah is actually hosting the Grammys this year, but also seemingly disagreed with West being disinvited. On Sunday, the host tweeted “I said counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye.”
And while fellow “The View” host Ana Navarro agreed that West needs counseling, she argued that the rapper shouldn’t avoid all consequences in the meantime.
“I mean, yeah, somebody needs to get him to counseling. But until then, do we all need to put up with this?” she said.