NEED TO KNOW
- Whoopi Goldberg ripped up a legal note passed to her by co-host Sunny Hostin on the Nov. 3 episode of The View
- After Goldberg made a joke about President Donald Trump using an autopen, Hostin passed her the note and clarified to the audience, “We don’t know if Trump used an autopen”
- Goldberg called the correction “ridiculous,” insisting she was joking and complaining that “no one understands nuance”
Whoopi Goldberg did not appreciate co-host Sunny Hostin passing her a legal note during the Monday, Nov. 3, episode of The View.
As Goldberg, 69, Hostin, 57, and their fellow panelists kicked off the week by discussing President Donald Trump and the ongoing government shutdown, Goldberg made a quip about Trump “using an autopen,” a device used to replicate a signature.
While it’s unclear whether or not Trump, 79, has used an autopen since taking office for his second term, he seems to be fixated on claims that his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, did use one to sign his name on presidential documents.
After Goldberg’s joke, Hostin — a former attorney who often addresses legal issues on the show —passed her a blue index card across the table, prompting co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin to exclaim, “I love when Sunny passes notes!”
“What the hell? What?” Goldberg said, before Hostin audibly clarified, “We don’t know if Trump used an autopen.”
“It was a joke!” Goldberg insisted, tearing up the note, which she called “ridiculous.”
Rather than getting back on track, the EGOT winner told the audience, “The hardest thing about this job now is no one understands nuance.
“You know, when you hear a joke, when somebody is fooling around, when they’re not saying something specific. Especially on this show,” she continued. “I’m very specific when I’m pointing stuff out. When I’m making jokes, you know when I’m making jokes.”
This isn’t the first time Goldberg’s temper has flared on The View over something related to Trump. Last May, the president mocked her on Truth Social, reposting a meme that claimed the actress and comedian was planning to leave America if he was re-elected.
Trump added his own caption to the meme, writing, “Canada doesn’t want you Whoopi, NOBODY DOES!!!”
“Look — I’m not going anywhere,” Goldberg responded, earning cheers from The View‘s audience at the time. “And it’s not for the reason, you little snowflake — it’s not for the reason you think.”
“He said nobody wanted me. Honey… you know what, it wouldn’t matter if no one here wanted me. But I know where I’m going to be cause I got a contract,” she added. “So I’m going to be where I’m wanted for the next couple of years.”
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Trump frequently brings up Biden’s alleged use of the autopen — calling into question the validity of pardons and bills that he signed in office — and even refused to hang up Biden’s portrait in a new “Presidential Walk of Fame” he recently installed outside the West Wing.
Instead, between two portraits of Trump, there is an image of an autopen signing Biden’s signature.
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