Sunny Hostin knocks Fetterman approach to dressing: ‘I think that it demeans the office’

Sunny Hostin, co-host of “The View,” on Tuesday knocked Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) for his approach to dressing in the Senate, saying it “demeans” the office of a government official to wear sweatpants to work.

“I was always taught: You dress for the job that you want, not for even the job that you have,” Hostin said on Tuesday’s episode of the show, invoking her experience working as a trial attorney at the Department of Justice.

“And I, too, walked all of those halls, and I walked into the Supreme Court building, and I walked into federal courtrooms all the time,” she said. “And you don’t wear jeans, and you don’t wear hoodies, and you don’t wear what you would wear coming out of the gym.” 

Hostin first responded to a comment about Fetterman, who regularly wears basketball shorts and hoodies in the Capitol, but then added that other senators similarly dress in ways she described as inappropriate.

“It just seems to me that, even though there is no law, it’s just a practice, and I think that it demeans the office and the actual decorum in the Senate to walk around like Kyrsten Sinema, with the bright pink wig. She looks like some sort of weird, strange unicorn,” Hostin said. “You’ve got Ted Cruz that has like kind of walked in with his sweat outfit.”

Hostin’s remarks come after news that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) quietly changed the informal dress code in the upper chamber to allow senators to dress as they choose on the floor. Visitors and staff still must abide by the traditional dress code.

The change was met with swift backlash by those who viewed the dress code as a sign of respect for the institution. Others, however, were less bothered by it.

“Listen, here’s my attitude,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said in response to Hostin on the show. “I don’t care what you wear as long as you get the job done.”