Key Points
- Whoopi Goldberg kicked off The View praising the crowd’s reception because the gig ‘can feel like hell.’
- Goldberg, Joy Behar, and Sunny Hostin laughed off rumors that the cohosts are on the Jeffrey Epstein client list.
- Goldberg later asked where the line in the sand exists for the American public.
Most jobs don’t come with a media platform that leads to allegations that you’re on the client list of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (which, according to the Department of Justice, doesn’t actually exist) — but that’s one of many reasons why Whoopi Goldberg thinks her gig as moderator of The View “can feel like hell” sometimes.
The 69-year-old Oscar-winning actress began Tuesday morning’s episode by taking in an extra-long audience reception, which saw the studio crowd rise to its feet for a sustained round of applause for Goldberg and cohosts Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, and Alyssa Farah Griffin.
“Let us say this to you: Thank you for that, because sometimes this gig can feel like hell,” Goldberg said. “And sometimes you feel like people are just angry at you all the time, so to get a welcome like this this morning, we really appreciate it.”
Goldberg then introduced a Hot Topic about “some of MAGA’s most faithful” who “are feeling betrayed right now over a promise administration officials have been repeatedly making,” referencing the alleged Epstein client list that United States Attorney General Pam Bondi once claimed was in her possession, sitting on her desk.
“There’s nothing sitting on anybody’s desk,” Goldberg asserted, before Behar made a point about why she thinks conservative politicians leaned into hawking the idea that the Epstein list existed in the first place.
“What’s interesting about this case for me, first of all, there is no list,” Behar observed. “What’s bothering his MAGA crowd is not the tariffs which are going to raise prices on their food, it’s not the possibility that you’re going to lose Medicaid so you’re going to all have to care of your mothers and fathers who have dementia or whatever’s bothering them. It’s not the Epstein list, it’s the fact that they were going to use this list against liberals. They were going to out Bill Clinton or whoever else they think — you and I.”
She turned toward Goldberg, who joked to the chuckling audience, “Yes, we’re on the list. We’re on that list,” before clarifying, “No, no, no! You’re laughing, but we were placed on that list.”
Hostin, a former federal prosecutor, jumped in to clarify that, according to online detractors, Goldberg and Behar were “allegedly on the list,” while Griffin added that “the internet is convinced” of the false information.
Griffin, who previously worked for Donald Trump at the White House before resigning and subsequently speaking out against the president, said that she feels politicians might “look for things that affirm your own worst instincts,” and that those who actually deserve ire from Republicans are often not celebrity figures.
“It’s not Joy and Whoopi?” Hostin asked. “Fortunately, it’s not Joy and Whoopi,” Griffin replied.
She continued, “I was on the inside of government, I was a lot more partisan before I was on the inside, and you suddenly see facts that aren’t black and white. They’re not blue and red, they’re not Democratic and Republican, they’re often just ugly, dirty, and things that oftentimes you can’t even make public because of the dangers associated with it.
Goldberg finished the segment by asking, “When is it going to be enough? When are [people going to say, okay, that it’s it?” with regard to conspiracies.
“Is it going to take the farmers getting up and going, ‘Okay, your food is rotting here because we’ve gotten rid of everybody who wants to come here and do this and take care of their families?'” the Ghost star asked.
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Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Goldberg and Behar at The View for additional comment.
The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.
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