After covering up their red-hot scandal featuring The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg’s (stage name) anti-Semitic comments about the Holocaust Monday evening and Tuesday morning, ABC finally covered it Tuesday evening just in time to cover her on-air apology. And their report came as sources inside ABC said Whoopi’s in “deep s--t” with some pushing for her to be fired with former co-host Meghan McCain having spoken out.
“Tonight, Whoopi Goldberg has apologized after saying the Holocaust was not about race, in comments she made on The View yesterday. What she said today and her apology amid the firestorm over her words,” anchor David Muir reported over 24-hours after Whoopi first made her comment.
After playing a soundbite of Whoopi’s original anti-Semitic remarks about the Holocaust not being about race, correspondent Erielle Reshef highlighted her apology (click “expand”):
RESHEF: The remarks sparking outrage. Goldberg tweeting an apology and today, opening the show with this.
WHOOPI: I said that the Holocaust wasn't about race and it was instead about man’s inhumanity to man. But it was indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race.
Now, worlds matter, and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, as I said and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people as they know and y'all know, because I've always done that.
“Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, dehumanized and targeted by the Nazis for extermination based on an anti-Semitic ideology that they were an inferior race,” Reshef added.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the New York Post’s entertainment gossip project Page Six reported that sources inside ABC say she’s in “deep s—t.” “There is growing fury inside ABC over Whoopi Goldberg’s controversial Holocaust claims, with insiders insisting that her apology isn’t enough and demanding that she be fired,” reported Emily Smith.
According to Smith, Disney Network executives weren’t happy with the apology and think she needed to suffer the consequences:
“ABC staffers and Disney Network execs are saying Whoopi went way too far. And board members are not happy with her apology and want a fuller retraction. The word is that Whoopi is in ‘deep s–t,’” one ABC insider told us.
“Why does Whoopi seemingly get a pass when others don’t? Perhaps this time she won’t. Many at the network — including her fellow hosts — believe Whoopi is too controversial now for the show.”
The insider also told Page Six that the situation “isn’t just going to blow over.”
One source apparently overheard co-host Joy Behar backstage. “This will cast a shadow over everything for a while. Even Joy Behar was heard saying backstage that Whoopi is ‘dead wrong’ and may not ever recover from this,” they told Page Six.
Even with insider speculation swirling that Whoopi could be fired, McCain wasn’t so sure.
Blasting Whoopi’s comments on the show Tuesday as a “half-assed apology” in her Daily Mail column, McCain wrote: “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.”
“I was lectured to thousands of times on The View, there is a belief that 'cancel culture' is really 'accountability culture' among the woke left,” she said. “Which seems to be a belief that's quickly forgotten whenever it's Whoopi who has to be held to account.”
And after reporting on Whoopi's comments Tuesday morning, CBS and NBC dropped the scandal from their newscasts later that evening.
ABC’s feet-dragging response to Whoopi Goldberg’s Holocaust scandal was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from WeatherTech and Liberty Mutual. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s World News Tonight
February 1, 2022
6:44:17 p.m. EasternDAVID MUIR: Tonight, Whoopi Goldberg has apologized after saying the Holocaust was not about race, in comments she made on The View yesterday. What she said today and her apology amid the firestorm over her words. Here's ABC's Erielle Reshef tonight.
[Cuts to video]
ERIELLE RESHEF: Tonight, new fallout over those explosive comments by Whoopi Goldberg. The host of ABC's The View inaccurately claiming on Monday's show that the Holocaust was not about race.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Well also, if we're going to do this, then let's be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn't about race.
SARA HAINES: No.
GOLDBERG: No. It's not about race.
[Crosstalk]
JOY BEHAR: They considered Jews a different race.
GOLDBERG: It's not about race. It's not about race.
BEHAR: What is it about?
GOLDBERG: It's about man's inhumanity to man. That's what it's about.
RESHEF: The remarks sparking outrage. Goldberg tweeting an apology and today, opening the show with this.
WHOOPI: I said that the Holocaust wasn't about race and it was instead about man’s inhumanity to man. But it was indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race.
Now, worlds matter, and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, as I said and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people as they know and y'all know, because I've always done that.
RESHEF: 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, dehumanized and targeted by the Nazis for extermination based on an anti-Semitic ideology that they were an inferior race.
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: That might not fit exactly or feel different than the way we think about race in 21st century America, where primarily it's about people of color. But throughout the Jewish people's history, they have been marginalized, they have been persecuted, they have been slaughtered, in large part, because many people felt they were not just a different religion, but indeed a different race.
RESHEF: So far, no comment – [ABC cut this short]
[Cuts back to live]
And David, Jews are just two percent of the U.S. population, but according to the FBI, roughly 60 percent of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jews. The ADL warning that anti-Semitism is a real and present danger. David.
MUIR: All right. Erielle Reshef tonight live in New York. Erielle, thank you.
