Just because Caryn Elaine Johnson, who does by the fake name Whoopi Goldberg, was 69 years old and Joy Behar was 82 years old, didn’t mean they were above acting like juvenile bullies. The oldest members of ABC’s Cackling Coven, The View kicked off Wednesday’s show by taking swings at Elon Musk’s 4-year-old son, mocking and bullying him for his name: “X.” At no point did any of the other cast members intervene on behalf of the child. Instead, one of them blamed Musk for South African apartheid.
Looking to start the show’s Hot Topics segment with Musk’s Oval Office press conference about the activities of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from yesterday, things were immediately derailed by Behar targeting Musk’s son, who was in attendance. Goldberg joined in and scolded people for mocking their names when Musk’s son was named “X”:
GOLDBERG: Yeah. So yesterday Elon Musk took his son X to a press conference --
JOY BEHAR: X?
GOLDBERG: I did not name the child.
[Laughter]
BEHAR: That’s the kid’s name?
GOLDBERG: And I don't want to hear any more mess about our names, okay? Okay?
With Goldberg mockingly calling him “little X,” despite him being older than his father’s acquisition and rebranding of the social media network, Behar jabbed that he had a sibling called “Instagram.” Co-host Sara Haines spoke up but only to note that Musk didn’t own Instagram. “I know,” Behar huffed.
Later in the segment, staunchly racist Asuncion Cummings Hostin, who goes by the fake name Sunny, attacked Musk for having the audacity as a naturalized American citizen to be a champion for American democracy.
Despite Musk being a child at the time, Hostin blamed Musk for South African apartheid and seemed to suggest it was still active:
And what is rich to me again he is not elected and he is talking about our American democracy. A man who grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era benefited from apartheid. And apartheid is the very antithesis to our American democracy because in South Africa today, there is let's see 81 percent of South Africa's population are black Africans, yet, only four percent of those black Africans own the land. So, this is what we're -- this is the person that's supposed to be teaching us about democracy.
Musk was born on June 28, 1971 and apartheid ended on May 4, 1990, so Musk was still 18 at the time (he became an American citizen in 2002). Obviously he was too young to have had an influence, but then again The View had just shown that attacking kids was not off limits to them. And Hostin also seemed to be ignorant enough to think it was still going on, or perhaps she wanted the government to steal the land from the whites.
It’s also worth the reminder that Hostin’s family were prolific Spanish slave-owners. They actually fled across the Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to out run the abolition of slavery.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
February 12, 2025
11:02:33 a.m. EasternWHOOPI GOLDBERG: Yeah. So yesterday Elon Musk took his son X to a press conference --
JOY BEHAR: X?
GOLDBERG: I did not name the child.
[Laughter]
BEHAR: That’s the kid’s name?
GOLDBERG: And I don't want to hear any more mess about our names, okay? Okay?
Anyhoo, he took little X --
BEHAR: Sorry. And little Instagram.
SARA HAINES: He doesn't own Instagram.
GOLDBERG: He doesn’t own Instagram.
BEHAR: I know.
GOLDBERG: He just took X with him to a press conference in the Oval Office to defend himself against critics who say he should not have the power to gut the federal agency.
(…)
11:04:11 a.m. Eastern
GOLDBERG: Okay, just before we even say anything, I want to say over the last decade, last ten years Musk's company SpaceX and Tesla were awarded at least 18 billion in federal contracts according to spending data and since the president's election, his net worth has increased 64 billion or nearly 25 percent. So, yeah, I'm going to say, you want to cut something, cut some of the stuff you're taking out.
[Applause]
SUNNY HOSTIN: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: Because, you know, I get that there's fat everywhere and, yes, we'd all like to see less of it but what you're doing is a lot more than just cutting fat. You're giving people information that they should not have because they're not the people whose information it is. And nobody elected you! That's the part. That's the part.
[Applause]
HOSTIN: That's the main part. You know Whoopi, to your point – To your point Whoopi, about all these government contracts, the billions of dollars that his companies have, his six companies have with the U.S. Government. What is also very interesting is, the cutting that he has done with the federal agencies, those very same agencies have 32 continuing investigations, complaints, or enforcement actions against his companies. Those are the agencies and the people that he is cutting, so he is all of it is inuring to his benefit.
And what is rich to me again he is not elected and he is talking about our American democracy. A man who grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era benefited from apartheid. And apartheid is the very antithesis to our American democracy because in South Africa today, there is let's see 81 percent of South Africa's population are black Africans, yet, only four percent of those black Africans own the land. So, this is what we're -- this is the person that's supposed to be teaching us about democracy.
(…)