Some of Whoopi Goldberg’s co-hosts on ABC’s “The View” are reportedly “furious” at the network for suspending her after her incendiary comments regarding the Holocaust.
The Daily Beast reported Tuesday night, “Multiple sources said that Goldberg’s co-hosts Sunny Hostin, Joy Behar, and Ana Navarro are furious with the network’s decision.”
Navarro, who intermittently guest-hosts on the program and was appearing on the show when Goldberg made her comments on Monday, told The Daily Beast, “I love Whoopi Goldberg. I love The View…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.”
On Tuesday evening, ABC News president Kimberly Godwin released a statement regarding the suspension which read, “Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends and communities.”
Godwin said in a note to ABC staff, “ … these decisions are never easy, but necessary. … Just last week I noted that the culture at ABC News is one that is driven, kind, inclusive, respectful, and transparent. Whoopi’s comments do not align with those views.”
“It was important that Whoopi had a chance to address her comments on the show today where she made them and have an educational conversation with Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League,” she added. “But words matter and we must be cognizant of the impact our words have …
Goldberg triggered outrage after Monday’s broadcast of “The View” during which she stated, “The Holocaust isn’t about race. No. It’s not about race,” adding, “It’s about man’s inhumanity to man. That’s what it’s about,” then further stating, “These are two white groups of people.”
After initially apologizing, Goldberg seemingly doubled down on Monday night during an interview on “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert. She said, “I feel, being black, when we talk about race it’s a very different thing to me. So I said I thought the Holocaust wasn’t about race. And it made people very angry. I’m getting a lot of mail from folks and a lot of anger. But I thought it was a salient discussion because as a black person I think of race as being something that I can see.”
“People were very angry, and said no, we are a race. And I understand. I felt differently. I respect everything everyone is saying to me. I don’t want to fake apologize,” she added. “I am very upset that people misunderstood what I was saying. And because of it they are saying I am anti-Semitic, and denying the Holocaust, and all these other things that would never occur to me to do.”
When Colbert pointed out, “Have you come to understand that the Nazis saw it as race? Asking the Nazis, they would say, ‘Yes, it’s a racial issue,’” Goldberg responded, “This is what’s interesting to me because the Nazis lied. It wasn’t. They — they had issues with ethnicity, not with race, because most of the Nazis were white people and most of the people they were attacking were white people. So to me, I’m thinking, how can you say it’s about race if you are fighting each other?”
“So it all really began because I said how will children — how will we explain to children what happened in Nazi Germany?” Goldberg continued. “This wasn’t — I said — this wasn’t racial. This was about white on white. And everybody said no, no, no, it was racial. And so that’s what this all came from.”
