As Whoopi Goldberg appeared as a guest in a pre-recorded interview for CNN's The Axe Files on Saturday night, the liberal comedian and co-host of ABC's The View repeated the myth that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pledged not to work with Barack Obama right after he was elected President, and then claimed that "a lot of" the opposition to Obama was "based in race" as she declared that "That group that never got over the fact that slavery was abolished is still out there."
She also responded to a question from host David Axelrod about why she always refuses to speak Donald Trump's name as she co-hosts The View.
As the two discussed the existence of political polarization, Goldberg lamented that there were not more "moderates" in government, and then began complaining about McConnell as she added:
When I heard Mitch McConnell say, when Obama was elected, "I'm not going to do anything -- anything to help this President." That was a big F-you to the United States because he wasn't the President of black people -- he was the President of the liberals -- he was the President of everybody.
This recollection seems to be based on a debunked myth that McConnell had stated that his top priority was to defeat Obama right after the President was first elected when, in reality, the Republican leader made the comment almost two years into Obama's presidency in the middle of election season in October 2010.
Host Axelrod -- a former Obama advisor -- soon followed up by asking: "How much of that opposition was rooted in race, in your view?"
Goldberg proclaimed that "I think a lot of it was based in race," and, without naming any names, claimed that she remembered "some of those talk radio people asking questions" likening President Obama to the cartoon character Curious George, adding that "that group that never got over the fact that slavery was abolished is still out there."
A bit later, Axelrod brought up his guest's refusal to pronounce President Trump's name, and asked why she has such a reaction. After initially just simply stating, "I can't," she soon added: "This is the first time where I can't wrap my mind around this and that people felt the need to put this in."
As previously documented by NewsBusters, Goldberg never utters Trump's name when he is discussed on ABC's The View, instead opting to refer to him as "the new guy" or "you know who."
