Actor Antonio Sabato Jr., who is running for Congress, took to The View to defend comments he made to ABC News at the Republican National Convention, airing the false claim that former President Barack Obama is Muslim, a disproven conspiracy theory.

When pressed on the issue by host Sunny Hostin, Sabato reasoned, “I mean, if he’s not a Muslim, we should call him ‘President Barry’ then,” incorrectly arguing that Obama had changed his name to join Islam.

The hosts of The View repeatedly pushed Sabato to acknowledge that his claims were false. He at one point gives an unconvincing “OK, he’s not,” but then continued to assert that Obama had changed his name to become Muslim.

Former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin contended, “There’s no evidence of that.”

Sabato tried to steer the discussion toward the issues he wanted to discuss, but Joy Behar ended the exchange by saying, “It’s important not to propagate fake news.”

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