How Whoopi Goldberg’s ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Reportedly Reacted to Her Suspension

Whoopi Goldberg’s The View co-hosts are reportedly “furious” after she was suspended from the talk show for two weeks. Goldberg, who has been a staple of the ABC morning program since 2007, was given the suspension after she claimed during a live broadcast this week that the Holocaust was “not about race,” a remark that sparked widespread condemnation and eventually prompted an on-air apology from Goldberg. According to a new report from the Daily Beast, while some ABC insiders “don’t understand why it took two days” for Goldberg to face reprimanding, those who work closest to her, her co-hosts, are upset over her suspension.

In a statement to the outlet, Ana Navarro, a regular guest host who was on Monday’s broadcast, said that she was “sad” with the outcome. Noting that she loves both Goldberg and The View, Navarro said “this was an incredibly unfortunate incident,” adding that Goldberg “is a lifelong ally to the Jewish community. She is not an antisemite. Period. I am sad. And I have nothing else to say.” Meanwhile, during Wednesday’s episode, the first episode to air following Goldberg’s suspension, the co-hosts barely touched the topic. Instead, Behar kicked off the program by stating, “you all saw the news. Whoopi will be back in two weeks,” before the show moved on to other discussions.

Goldberg’s co-hosts have offered no further public reaction to her suspicion, which was announced by ABC News President Kim Godwin early Tuesday morning. In a public statement, Godwin confirmed, “effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks.” Godwin confirmed that the suspension was due to Goldberg’s “wrong and hurtful comments,” which were made during a Monday discussion about the banning of the graphic novel Maus by a Tennessee school board. During the discussion, Goldberg repeatedly insisted that the Holocaust was “not about race,” but was instead “about man’s inhumanity to man…These are two white groups of people.”

Goldberg’s remarks sparked widespread condemnation, with her co-hosts even having countered them during the discussion. Goldberg’s former co-host Meghan McCain dubbed the comments “bizarre, incoherent, and even dangerous” in her Daily Mail column. However, McCain noted, “I am not calling for Whoopi Goldberg to be fired, if only because I don’t believe there is any universe where she could possibly do anything that could get her fired – she is the crown jewel of The View and a pop culture icon.” McCain wrote that she instead hoped “this can be used as a teachable moment to explain to millions of Americans why conflating the Holocaust as something that is specific and limited to ‘white people’ is insane, ahistorical and anti-Semitic.” Goldberg has since apologized for her remarks, though she has not yet publicly addressed her two-week suspension.