Whoop Goldberg’s “The View” co-hosts Joy Behar, Sara Haines and Sunny Hostin remained silent on the Wednesday, Feb. 2, episode of the ABC daytime talk show regarding Goldberg’s two-week suspension. ABC News president Kim Godwin announced in the evening of Tuesday, Feb., 1 that Goldberg would be suspended from “The View” following Goldberg’s remarks that the Holocaust was “not about race.” Behar started the Wednesday morning episode of “The View” by reiterating that Goldberg would be off the show for two weeks, then the hosts moved on to the “Hot Topics” segment.
“You all saw the news,” Behar said. “Whoopi will be back here in two weeks.”
According to a report from The Daily Beast, a source close to “The View” says “most of [Goldberg’s] co-hosts are furious with the network” for suspending Goldberg after she made numerous apologies about her Holocaust remarks. Ana Navarro, a regular co-host on “The View” who was on the Jan. 31 episode when Goldberg made the comment, told The Daily Beast she’s sad about Goldberg’s suspension.
“I love Whoopi Goldberg. I love ‘The View,’” Navarro said. “This was an incredibly unfortunate incident. Whoopi is a lifelong ally to the Jewish community. She is not an antisemite. Period. I am sad. And I have nothing else to say.”
Goldberg’s original remark emerged during a conversation in which the co-hosts discussed a Tennessee school board’s ban of “Maus,” a nonfiction graphic novel about cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s father’s experience surviving the Holocaust. Goldberg said, “Let’s be truthful about it because [the] Holocaust isn’t about race. It’s not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.”
Goldberg’s comment drew immediate, sweeping criticism from Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Goldberg apologized on social media in the evening of Jan. 31 and then made an on-air apology on the Feb. 1 episode of “The View.”
“So yesterday on our show, I misspoke,” Goldberg said. “I said that the Holocaust wasn’t about race and it was instead about man’s inhumanity to man. But it is indeed about race, because Hitler and the Nazis considered the Jews to be an inferior race. Now, words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments as I said and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people, as they know, and as you all know because I’ve always done that.”
Former “The View” co-host Meghan McCain slammed Goldberg in an essay published on The Daily Mail, writing, “Instead of half-assed apologies and bringing in experts in the antisemitism space, maybe dedicate an entire ‘Hot Topics’ segment to discussing why what was said was so deeply offensive and dangerous…American viewers deserve a better class of debate, especially on a topic of such importance to understanding the capacity of evil in the world.”
With Goldberg suspended, “The View” hosts Behar, Hostin and Haines were joined by guest conservative commentator Tara Setmayer on the Feb. 2 episode.
