Whoopi Goldberg’s co-hosts on “The View” are furious at ABC for suspending the embattled personality over her claim that the Holocaust was “not about race,” according to a report.
ABC News president Kim Godwin announced late Tuesday that “effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg 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.”
Goldberg, 66, made the eyebrow-raising claim on Monday’s program, insisting that Nazis and Jews were both white. She then repeated the statement on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” that evening.
The host walked back the remarks on Twitter later that night amid widespread outrage.
“As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, ‘The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people — who they deemed to be an inferior race.’ I stand corrected,” she wrote.
In an email to ABC staffers, Godwin praised Goldberg for her apology and inviting Anti-Defamation League CEO Greenblatt on Tuesday’s show to discuss her offensive remarks.
However, Goldberg’s suspension came as some ABC insiders insisted that her apology wasn’t enough and demanded she be fired.
“People are really upset and don’t understand why it took two days,” an ABC executive told the Daily Beast.
Still, other network insiders told the outlet that Goldberg’s co-hosts — Sunny Hostin, Joy Behar and Ana Navarro — are furious that she was suspended.
Navarro, a regular guest host who was on Monday’s show, defended Goldberg.
“I love Whoopi Goldberg. I love ‘The View,’” Navarro told the Daily Beast on Tuesday evening. “This was an incredibly unfortunate incident. Whoopi is a lifelong ally to the Jewish community. She is not an anti-Semite, period. I am sad. And I have nothing else to say.”
On Tuesday’s show, Greenblatt told Goldberg that “there’s no question that the Holocaust was about race. Literally, the first page of ‘Maus,’ the book you were talking about yesterday, Whoopi, opens with a quote from Hitler, and literally it says, ‘The Jews undoubtedly are a race, but they are not human.’”
He added: “Hitler’s ideology was predicated on the idea that … the Jews were a subhuman race. It was a racialized anti-Semitism.”
Goldberg first argued that the Holocaust went beyond race during a discussion on “The View” about a Tennessee school district’s decision to ban “Maus,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about a Holocaust survivor.
“The Holocaust isn’t about race. No, it’s not about race,” she said repeatedly. “It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.”
On Tuesday night, Greenblatt appeared on CNN, where he told anchor Don Lemon that he couldn’t comment on “ABC News’ internal process” but that he hoped Goldberg would use the next two weeks “for a process of introspection and learning.”
When Lemon mentioned that some people believe ABC overreacted by suspending Goldberg, Greenblatt said: “We sometimes have people in public places who can say clumsy things about race or faith or gender.
“I don’t believe in cancel culture. I like the phrase that my friend Nick Cannon uses: ‘We need counsel culture.’ We shouldn’t cancel Whoopi because she made a mistake,” he said.
“I heard Whoopi say that she’s committed to doing better. I accept that apology with the sincerity with which she delivered it,” Greenblatt added.
