Whoopi Goldberg on Monday, Feb. 14 returned to ABC’s The View following a two-week suspension due to controversial comments she made previously on the show about the Holocaust. Taking her seat at the discussion table alongside co-hosts Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines, Goldberg called it “an honor to sit at this table” as she vowed to “keep having tough conversations.”
Monday’s episode kicked off with Goldberg’s traditional intro of “Well, hello, hello, hello and welcome to The View,” before the longtime host went on to confirm, “Yes, I am back… And I missed you all, too.” Goldberg went on to tell viewers that “there’s something kind of marvelous about being on a show like this,” explaining that “we are The View and this is what we do” before she indirectly addressed the controversy she found herself in. Goldberg acknowledged that “sometimes we don’t do it as delicately as we could. But it’s five minutes to get in important information about topics. And that’s what we try to do every day.”
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In the 90-second opening, Goldberg also offered a message of thanks to “everybody who reached out while I was away.” Goldberg, who was suspended after she stated on-air that the Holocaust wasn’t “about race” during a panel discussion about the banning of the book Maus by a school board in Tennessee, shared that “people reached out from places that made me go, ‘Wait, wait, what? Really? OK!’” Goldberg said, “It was amazing and I listened to everything everybody had to say and I was very grateful,” adding that she hopes “it keeps all the important conversations happening because we’re going to keep having tough conversations.”
“And in part, because this is what we have been hired to do. And it’s not always pretty, as I said, and it’s not always as other people would like to hear, but it is an honor to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations because they’re important,” she continued. “They’re important to us as a nation, and to us more so as a human entity. So, happy Valentine’s Day, y’all! And we’re going to get started, because that’s what we do.”
Goldberg’s return to the ABC morning show came two weeks after ABC News President Kim Godwin announced that Goldberg had been suspended “for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments.” Those comments were made during the Monday, Jan. 31 episode of the ABC talk show, during which Goldberg stated the Holocaust wasn’t “about race,” but rather “about man’s inhumanity to man…These are two white groups of people.” Amid fierce backlash, Goldberg issued a public apology “for the hurt I have caused,” adding live on-air just prior to her suspension, “Words matter – and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people.”
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