Sunny Hostin suggests Jill Biden has 'racial blind spots' after inviting runner-up Iowa to White House

"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin suggested First Lady Jill Biden might have "racial blind spots" Thursday because she wanted to invite both the national champion LSU and runner-up Iowa women's basketball teams to the White House. 

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg seemed to defend the First Lady and said that she might not have known that it is only the winner that gets to go to the White House. Biden's remarks touched off a controversy last week when she suggested her husband should invite Iowa as well, with critics saying it was tone-deaf and even racially insensitive, as LSU's star player Angel Reese is Black and Iowa's leading scorer Caitlin Clark is White. 

"Maybe she doesn’t know, as her husband knows, that only the winning team gets to go," Goldberg said. "Knowing her as I do, I don’t think it’s that she wanted the White kids to come and not the Black kids. I think it was more, I'm a teacher and I'm trying to make nice with everybody. I just want to point out that sometimes people say stuff or do stuff and people rake them over the coals. But unnecessarily, because they did not take the time out to say well, is this an offense or is this somebody who is ignorant?"

"I would think that it’s ignorance. It could be somewhat considered unconscious bias. I mean everyone doesn't get a trophy," Hostin responded. "I don’t know that she knew it or not but it was clearly a blind spot. She's got a Black vice president to lean on, she spent eight years with the Obamas. I think at this point, there still could be some racial blind spots and unconscious bias. I think this player is saying what a lot of people are thinking, had it been the Black team that lost, perhaps the First Lady would not have said that." 

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Goldberg said Hostin was making "assumptions" and that we don't know that. 

Co-host Sara Haines agreed with Goldberg and said it "wasn't a thought-out thing."

" I don’t think she meant anything negative by it. But I think what stood out to me, we want women’s sports to be treated like men’s sports. Because that’s what makes us to be able to enjoy them. And i feel like, men, we would never be like, ‘Oh, the losing team also gets to come,'" co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said. 

Co-host Joy Behar said she agreed with the "idea of unconscious bias" but not in this case because Biden is a "big supporter of Black Lives Matter" and "getting the Black vote out."

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"It was clean up in aisle six real quick," Hostin said. "Press secretary came out and said ‘she did not mean that.’"

Goldberg emphasized at the end of the segment that the hosts of the show had "been in this situation" themselves. 

For her part, Reese said the First Lady's comments were "a JOKE" on Twitter. 

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The NCAA women's championship game has generated an unusual amount of headlines off the court. 

Reese, named the most Outstanding Player of this year's NCAA Tournament, taunted Clark with the star Iowa player's own "you can't see me" gesture during LSU's 102-85 victory, generating blowback that she was exhibiting poor sportsmanship. 

But her defenders noted Clark's own antics were not criticized during her blistering tournament run and suggested it was an example of a double racial standard. 

During an appearance on the "Paper Route" podcast, Reese said she didn't accept Jill Biden's apology. 

"I'm not gonna lie to you, I don't accept the apology because of, you said what you said... I said what I said. And like, you can't go back on certain things that you say," Reese said Tuesday. "I mean, you, like, felt like they should've came because of sportsmanship, right? They can have that spotlight. We'll go to the Obamas, we'll see Michelle, we'll see Barack."

Biden’s spokesperson, Vanessa Valdivia, explained she meant no disrespect over the remarks.

"The First Lady loved watching the NCAA women’s basketball championship game alongside young student athletes and admires how far women have advanced in sports since the passing of Title IX," Valdivia said. "Her comments in Colorado were intended to applaud the historic game and all women athletes. She looks forward to celebrating the LSU Tigers on their championship win at the White House."

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Fox News' Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.