GOP Congressional Candidate Antonio Sabato Jr. Still Thinks Obama Is Muslim

Antonio Sabato Jr. says he’s been “blacklisted” from Hollywood for actively supporting President Trump. But the hosts of The View think there might be another reason.

Sabato, one of the few “celebrities” to speak on Trump’s behalf at the Republican National Convention in 2016, recently announced his bid for Congress in California’s 26th District, which is currently held by three-term incumbent Democrat Julia Brownley.

After letting their guest get out a few platitudes about his plan to follow in Trump’s footsteps by putting “America first,” Sunny Hostin brought up an interview that Sabato gave to ABC News during the RNC in which he said he believes Barack Obama is “absolutely” a Muslim. “Do you think that that has anything to do with the blacklisting?” she asked.

“No, I never thought it was anything bad,” Sabato answered. “There’s millions of Muslims around the world, so I felt that it was never an insult.” He added, “If he’s not a Muslim, we should call him President Barry.”

Never mind the fact that the former president considers himself a Christian and prefers to go by his given name of Barack.

When the hosts pointed out that Obama is “not a Muslim,” Sabato said, “Maybe it was my mistake then or whatever, but I never meant—I liked the president, I liked him as a person, his family, they’re good people, so for me it was never an insult.”

But seconds later, he was digging himself back into the same hole. “What I was saying was, he changed his name to Obama because he followed the Islam religion when he was growing up,” Sabato said. “So I felt that once you’re in that religion, you stay for the rest of your life.”

“There’s no evidence of that,” Hostin and Joy Behar told him in unison. And with that, he tried to move on to the more “serious issues” that are affecting the country. “But it’s important not to propagate fake news,” Behar told him to loud applause from the audience.

It didn’t get much better for Sabato after that. Listing off his résumé, which includes a stint on General Hospital and underwear ads for Calvin Klein, Behar asked, “How does that really qualify you to run for Congress?”

Sabato admitted that he has no “qualifications,” explaining that’s what makes America “the greatest country in the world.” His friend Donald Trump would no doubt agree.