Sara Haines offered fellow View host Sunny Hostin some rare pushback on-air Monday - after the latter claimed the US and Israel's strikes on Iran are 'unconstitutional.'
Hostin, a former federal prosecutor, first told the panel: 'It's an illegal war. He didn't go to Congress. He didn't go to the UN He didn't go before the American people, and that's why, at this point, only 27 percent of Americans approve of these actions.
'And I don't believe, I don't have any confidence that Donald Trump has any sort of plan.
'Maybe he has concepts of a plan, but he does not have any sort of plan,' Hostin conclude, riffing off an unflattering phrase made famous by the conservative on the campaign trail in 2024.
Haines, seemingly unamused, rattled of a list of other recent presidents who have deployed members of the US military without congressional approval in retort.
'[Joe] Biden, [Barack] Obama, [Bill] Clinton, George H.W. [Bush], [Ronald] Reagan,' she said, reciting the names with relative ease.
'So I would be more upset that Congress has ceded this power, than mad that the president didn't check with Congress,' she concluded.
Before Hostin could reply, though, moderator Whoopi Goldberg cut in - to cut to commercial.
Sara Haines (second from left) got into it with her View co-host Sunny Hostin (second from right) on Monday after Hostin called the US and Israel's strikes on Iran 'unconstitutional'
Trump confirmed the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several other Iranian officials this week. Nearly every US president over the past 80 years has deployed military force without a formal declaration of war from Congress
Guest host Elisabeth Hasselbeck clashed with Hostin just minutes before.
The conservative former host, back for a week-long guest appearance, said she supported Trump's decision to go through with the strikes.
Hostin, however, raged: 'I thought this president wanted to win a Nobel Peace Prize for peace. That is not what I'm seeing. I am not seeing America first. I think people that voted for Trump, I was not one of them.
'I think you were,' she told Hasselbeck, an outspoken Republican. 'Those people wanted America first.'
Haines, at this point, stepped in. She pointed to the Islamic Republic regime's history of censorship and harming protestors.
'The Iranian people are amazing, and they deserve to live outside of this leader and this regime, but they also have had media blackouts,' she said. 'Any dissidents, they could be killed. They'll just be killed.'
She cited 'facial recognition' software being used by Iranians 'to identify protesters and then further eliminate them' as proof the regime is imperfect.
'So I just don't think we know yet how long this [lasts] or what it looks like, but there are some benefits to this country if indeed it could go smoothly.'
Hostin, a former federal prosecutor, pointed to a lack of Congressional approval as proof the strikes were illegal
Haines fired off a list of other head of states from memory guilty of the same 'offense'
Iranian state media, meanwhile, confirmed the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday, after the initial volley of strikes the day before.
The military operation - 'Operation Epic Fury' - is a joint campaign from both the US and Israel.
Trump told reporters Monday it could last four to five weeks or 'go far longer'.
Its mission was to thwart Tehran's nuclear development and a ballistic missile program, while carrying out a regime change, he said.
'This was our last best chance to strike – what we're doing right now – and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,' Trump said Monday.
So far, four American service personnel have lost their lives in the fighting.
'In their memory, we continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people,' Trump said Monday as well.
As Hostin indicated, only Congress has the formal power to declare war, but the commander-in-chief has often utilized Article II of the US constitution to bypass the requirement.
Article II establishes the executive branch and the vesting power of the president.
Nearly every US president over the past 80 years has deployed military force without a formal declaration of war from Congress and only through their authority as commander-in-chief.
