ABC's The View cohost Joy Behar on Friday said "every single" Democratic presidential candidate has a race problem.
"Every single one who's running probably has—this is a racist country, right? Every single one of them has something in their background that doesn't look good for race," Behar said.
Behar, who admitted to supporting two of the Democrats accused of supporting racially biased legislation, received pushback from some of her cohosts after she attempted to defend Michael Bloomberg.
"He created an office to tackle poverty when he was mayor. He greatly expanded city contracts with businesses owned by minorities and women," Behar said. "He created the Young Men's Initiative to help black and Latino men stay on track for success, and he reduced incarceration by 40 percent and juvenile confinement by more than 60 percent, so that is the balance to the stop-and-frisk."
Cohost Sunny Hostin responded to Behar's defense of Bloomberg by calling his record on race "problematic." Hostin cited Bloomberg's previous support for "stop-and-frisk" and comments linking the 2008 financial crisis to the ending of redlining. Redlining was a discriminatory practice by banks against people of color trying to borrow money to buy homes.
"Someone that I guess stands by this 'stop-and-frisk' policy just months before he then denounces it because he's running for presidency of the United States—I don't find that genuine. I don't find that authentic," Hostin said.
Bloomberg has received criticism from many Democrats over his redlining comments, including one of his Democratic presidential challengers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) said the financial crisis "would not have been averted if the banks had been able to be bigger racists, and anyone who thinks that should not be the leader of our party."