Whoopi Goldberg Liked Hosting ‘The View’ More When People Didn’t Think Everything You Say Comes From a ‘Nasty or Horrible’ Place: You Have to ‘Hedge What You Say’ Now
Whoopi Goldberg was the latest guest on “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” on Max and was asked about what it’s been like co-hosting ABC’s “The View” for the last 17 years. The EGOT winner joined the daytime franchise in 2007. Asked by Wallace if she still likes hosting the program, Goldberg acknowledged that it was a better gig back in the day when people did not automatically weaponize everything she said.
“I liked it better before because there was not … people didn’t didn’t assume that you were starting out to be nasty or horrible or saying stuff,” Goldberg said. “You used to say something and somebody would say, ‘Well, actually, that’s not so.’ And you could make that adjustment. Or you could say, ‘Well, here’s what … this is why I thought about it this way.’ You can’t do that anymore. Nobody wants to hear what you were thinking. They’re only saying that’s what you said. And that must mean that your whole life is that. It’s like wow.”
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“I feel like now you’re always having to hedge what you say because you don’t want to piss people off,” Goldberg added.
Asked by Wallace if there’s anything that’s pissing her off right now that she’d like to talk about, Goldberg concluded: “Yeah, but if I say, it’s only going to be a problem … only be a problem for you.”
While Goldberg did not bring up any specific examples, she did face enormous amounts of backlash in 2022 after she was temporarily suspended from “The View” for saying the Holocaust was “not about race” during a live episode. In an interview with The Sunday Times later that year, Goldberg courted controversy again for saying some Jewish people themselves are divided over whether they are a race or a religion. She also doubled down and said the Holocaust “wasn’t originally” about race.
Goldberg’s comments were widely condemned at the time, including by Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “Whoopi Goldberg’s comments about the Holocaust and race are deeply offensive and incredibly ignorant,” he posted on social media.
“When she made similar comments earlier this year, we explained how the Nazi regime was inherently racist,” he continued, “Whoopi’s comments show a complete lack of awareness of the multiethnic, multiracial makeup of the Jewish community. She needs to apologize immediately and actually commit to educating herself on the true nature of antisemitism.”
Goldberg eventually did issue an apology, in which she said: “I’m still learning a lot and believe me, I heard everything everyone said to me. I believe that the Holocaust was about race, and I am still as sorry now as I was then that I upset, hurt and angered people. My sincere apologies again, especially to everyone who thought this was a fresh rehash of the subject. I promise it was not. In this time of rising antisemitism, I want to be very clear when I say that I always stood with the Jewish people and always will. My support for them has not wavered and never will.”
Watch Goldberg’s full interview on the new episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?,” now streaming on Max.
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