A mere Ethics Dunce designation for The View’s Sunny Hostin isn’t sufficient, because she’s a regular co-host on ABC’s daily cultural offal pile where all of the women are ethics dunces at best. Hostin’s one of the worst, which is quite an achievement, but she’s also a lawyer, making her admission yesterday especially despicable.
I’ve seen the video several times but can’t find a way on Word Press to embed it. Sorry: you can view the evidence on Twitter here. Babbling on about voting with the ladies, Sunny expressed suspicions regarding how absentee ballots were being handled, because, she explained, she had an odd experience while dropping off her son’s absentee ballot which she had filled out for him.
Hostin is a different kind of idiot than the other idiots on the panel: she’s an arrogant, cocky idiot who thinks her law degree means that her idiotic opinions aren’t idiotic. Thus she admitted committing a federal crime on national TV and didn’t even realize it. I’d guess the average first year law student could figure out that this is a serious violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct in every U.S. jurisdiction. Not Sunny, though.
It isn’t a technical violation either; it’s serious. Usually unethical conduct by lawyers when they aren’t practicing law are ignored by bar disciplinary committees, but Rule 8.4, Misconduct, holds that “It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to:
(b) commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects;
In a comment, the rules adds, “Although a lawyer is personally answerable to the entire criminal law, a lawyer should be professionally answerable only for offenses that indicate lack of those characteristics relevant to law practice.” Hostin’s offense shows that she is incompetent and therefore untrustworthy, since she is ignorant of the law (or openly defiant of it—ignorant is better). Moreover, by proudly announcing that she voted for her son, she misinformed The View’s dumb as a box of mood rings audience, which assumes that the lawyer on the panel wouldn’t boast about breaking the law.
Hostin should be disciplined; a substantial suspension seems appropriate. She was a member of the D.C. bar, and probably others. If she is still a D.C. bar member, I’m filing a complaint.
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Pointer: Alex
Ethics Alarms 
And I hope you are not the only one. Using one’s credentials to flaunt the law makes society less ethical. Committing voter fraud and bragging about it is particularly egregious, though I suspect she thinks that nothing will come of it.
After all, requiring people to obey election laws is probably racist…or something.
Quick Question: is her son the one she recently sent off to Harvard? If so, there’s no excuse for filling out his ballot for him. He’s an adult and, if he’s going to Harvard, he should be competent enough to fill out his ballot himself. Or is Sunny one of those helicopter moms who will still be handling his doctor’s appointments and managing his checkbook when he’s 35?
I’m still thinking that the huge turnout of the most apathetic voting group on a reasonably inconsequential midterm election, and that group’s intense Democratic bias that turned a red wave into a purple night might be affected by this kind of fraud that was admitted to openly, on national TV, by a lawyer. I hope you can get the bar to discipline her.
Sarah
The young demographic is concerned about being able to copulate without consequence and wanting another handout from daddy government in the form of a college loan bailout.
The House should rescind the latter and or should begin investigations into college financial aid offices for fraud as they did with Countrywide Mortgage. Obviously, sub prime educations at these schools left these poor unsophisticated students saddled with mountains of debt. We should try to recover the amount forgiven from big education.
Sarah
Another thought came to me about the huge increase in turnout of the 18-29 demographic. Hostin stated her son called to make sure she sent in his absentee/mail in ballot. There is some contention here whether it was just to drop it off or did she commit fraud by voting for him. Had the ballot been filled out by her son he could have dropped it off himself. The fact that he did not and called to make sure she cast his ballot suggests that she could very well have filled it out for him as he directed. What Hoskin may not know is if he was registered and voted in the state where he was at the time. (I am assuming he is away at school as most adults in professions or the military don’t rely on mom or dad to do these things)
What if college students, away at school in another state vote absentee in their home state but also register as residents in their college towns they would effectively get two votes for different Democrat candidates which could account for the massive increase in turnout for that demographic.
I would suggest that Hoskin may have accidently exposed the scheme by trying to turn their election fraud into the appearance of voter suppression. An investigation into Sonny Hoskin’s son’s voting record should take place. Did he cast a vote in his home state and also where he was at the time? And, if he did cast two votes, a wider investigation of college students registering to vote in the college town and also voting in their original district before leaving for college.
It sounds like she was dropping his ballot off. It doesn’t clearly say she filled out the ballot, only that she delivered it (and was concerned about putting it in an unmarked bag).
It seems a stretch to file an ethics complaint about an ambiguous statement made on live TV. She was caught texting her son (and being mildly chided by Whoopie), and was repeatedly tripping over her words. It sounds like her son was checking that the ballot was dropped off, and she was explaining the awkward encounter dropping off the ballot extemporously. It was a poor choice of words to say she “actually had trouble voting for him”, but that was after a series “was… wass… that I did that…”, so I don’t find it damning.
That’s why the bar does investigations. If you found it ambiguous, so might many or all of the people watching, no? A lawyer, on an ABC “news” show, said that she “voted for” someone else. That’s a crime, as stated. If she didn’t, fine: it’s easy to check. What I hear is enough to call into question her fitness to practice, and that call is left entirely to the complaining lawyer, in this case, me.
I wonder what the rules are, then. If I vote absentee or by mail, am I required to fill out the ballot, sign it, put it in the envelope, sign the envelope, put it the mail or drop it off at the designated spot? Or, can I have someone drop it off for me? Isn’t that what is called “ballot harvesting”? It would seem that the answers to those questions should be, “why, yes, democracy franchise beneficiary, you have to have some proverbial skin in the game. You have to do all that stuff; otherwise, there is no real reason for you to vote. I mean, if you are too lazy to do the bare minimum, then you shouldn’t be allowed out of your house.”
jvb
Another question just popped into my Dr. Pepper deprived mind:
If this is her son who is off studying law at Harvard, when did he have the time to review and sign his mail-in ballot? Did he do that? Did she do it on his behalf? Did he say, while on a text chat, “hey, ma. I’m here at Harvard studying way too hard and I won’t be able to exercise my constitutional right to vote, you know the one my grandparents fought so hard to obtain (burps from drinking his Samuel Adams). Can you fill it out for me and send it in? You know I am enlightened so my votes will be for Democrats. But, just to be on safe side, pick a silly race and vote for the Independent candidate so that it looks like I really filled it out. Thanx. Love ya. *heart emoji*”.
If that is, in fact, what happened, doesn’t that reflect on his character to engage in the practice of law? Maybe he should be reminded that the republican/democracy franchise actually means something and shoudl reconsider whether he should be admitted to the bar (and not ones that serve Samuel Adams).
jvb