Sunny Hostin shared a controversial theory about Donald Trump on this morning’s episode of The View. While discussing the impending presidential election — which is now less than two weeks away — and how both Kamala Harris and Trump are treated by the media, Hostin said she thinks Trump “benefited” from the shift in coverage of his campaign after he survived two assassination attempts.

Hostin noted that there was a near-universal call to “tone down the rhetoric” in the wake of a concerning spark in political violence over the summer; Trump was grazed by a bullet at a rally in Pennsylvania in July and later targeted in an attempted assassination on his golf course in Florida in September.

But, she claimed, that very shift in rhetoric meant a less critical eye on Trump — meaning some key “factual information” about him wasn’t being widely reported, according to Hostin.

“We had those two assassination attempts against the former president, and the message that was sent out across the board was, ‘Let’s tone down the rhetoric,’ and in toning down the rhetoric, that silenced people that were calling him a fascist, a threat to society,” Hostin said. “That silenced factual information.”

Looking around the table, she said, “Many of us still called him a fascist, a dictator on day one, but there has been sort of this silencing of factual information about the former president, and I think that benefited him greatly.”

When Joy Behar piped up to say, “How come we haven’t toned down?” asking Hostin, “How do you explain that?” Sara Haines replied with a swift one-liner.

“Have you ever listened to directions?” she asked.

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.