Jonathan Greenblatt explains why Whoopi Goldberg's Holocaust comments were wrong
The Anti-Defamation League's Jonathan Greenblatt appears on 'The View' to address Whoopi Goldberg's widely panned remarks that the Holocaust wasn't about race.
Whoopi Goldberg was suspended from ABC on Tuesday after claiming that the Holocaust, a genocide in which 6 million Jews were murdered, had nothing to do with race, but it's not her career's only controversy.
"Let's be truthful about it, because the Holocaust isn't about race. No, it's not about race," Goldberg said.
Then, on CBS' "The Late Show," Goldberg told host Stephen Colbert, "I don’t want to fake apologize … I’m very upset that people misunderstood what I was saying."
She continued, "This was my thought process, and I’ll work hard not to think that way again."
COMPARING U.S. BORDER FACILITIES TO CONCENTRATION CAMP
It is not the first time that Goldberg has made Holocaust remarks. In 2019, she compared U.S. border facilities to a concentration camp, likely Terezín, also known as Theresienstadt, in which the Nazis used to transport Czech Jews to extermination camps and slave-labor camps. They also used it for propaganda efforts.
The Terezín concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. (Oscar Gonzalez/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Theresienstadt was a transport camp-ghetto implemented by the Nazis for their extermination pipeline during World War II. According to the United States Holocaust Museum, the camp featured abhorrent conditions to "hasten the deaths of many deportees, until the SS and police could deport the survivors to killing centers, [such as Auschwitz], in the East."
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS' MESSAGE TO WHOOPI GOLDBERG: ‘SHAME ON YOU’
Czech Republic; Terezin; former concentration camp; children visiting the memorial place - 1958 (ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
"There was a camp ... when the Red Cross was invited to inspect the camp in 1944, the Nazis hid the fact of what they were doing … And so they built a fake camp. And it was kind of like, no, everything’s fine here," Goldberg said in the discussion.
IT'S NOT 'RAPE-RAPE'
In 2009, Goldberg said that Roman Polanski's sexual abuse case from the 1970s against a 13-year-old girl was not "rape-rape."
"I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else, but I don't believe it was rape-rape," she said. "We're a different kind of society, we see things differently ... would I want my 14-year-old having sex with somebody? Not necessarily, no."
SEX JOKE ABOUT FORMER PRESIDENT ‘BUSH’
SlimFast, a diet company, cut ties with Goldberg after she made a sex joke about former President George W. Bush.
"We should keep Bush where he belongs, not in the White House," she said in 2004, while gesturing toward her genital area.
"We are disappointed by the manner in which Ms. Goldberg chose to express herself and sincerely regret that her recent remarks offended some of our consumers," a general manager of the company said at the time.
Goldberg later told Deadline that her bookings took a slump following the remark. When Barbara Walters offered her the job on "The View," it re-vamped her career.
Former President Bush at the White House (2009)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG SAYS 'THE VIEW,' BARBARA WALTERS SAVED HER CAREER AFTER 2004 GEORGE BUSH CONTROVERSY
DRAWING PARALLEL BETWEEN TRUMP AND THE TALIBAN
Goldberg said in 2017 that then-President Trump isn't much different than the radical Islamist Taliban.
"We have had a leader who's repeatedly demeaned women, wants to defund organizations that benefit women, calling on the media to shut up, specifically wants to give preferential treatment based on religion. Are these values really much different than the Taliban's?" Goldberg asked.
Taliban forces block the roads around the airport, while a woman with Burqa walks passes by, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2021. (Reuters)
She continued, "This is what makes us different from everybody else. Our media, nobody tells our media to shut up and just take it. Nobody. That’s not American. That is the Taliban."
COMMENTS ON DOG-FIGHTING
Goldberg defended NFL star Michael Vick after he pleaded guilty for his role in dog-fighting in 2007, saying it was a factor of southern culture.
Goldberg said, "He’s from the South, from the Deep South ... This is part of his cultural upbringing."
According to the Humane Society, dog fights can last two to three hours until one of the canines can't continue. The injuries dogs can sustain during this period can be "severe" and are "often fatal."
A Shih Tzu dog is pictured during a demonstration against animal abuse and condemning dogfights, in Tenerife, Spain (2017). (DESIREE MARTIN/AFP via Getty Images)
"For a lot of people, dogs are sport," Goldberg said. "Instead of just saying [Vick] is a beast and he’s a monster, this is a kid who comes from a culture where this is not questioned."
Joy Behar challenged her co-host, saying, "What part of the country is this? ... How about dog torturing and dog murdering?"
In 2008, dog fighting became a felony offense in all 50 states.
OUTBURSTS
Judge Jeanine Pirro, co-host of "The Five," went back and forth in a tense disagreement over former President Donald Trump when Goldberg lost her composure. Pirro was on "The View" to discuss her book "Liars, Leakers and Liberals."
Goldberg said, "You know what’s horrible is when the president of the United States whips up people to beat the hell out of people. Say goodbye. I’m done. I’m done." The show promptly went to commercial break.
She later said to the audience, "So you saw me do something I very rarely do," she said. "I very rarely lose my cool, and I’m not proud of it and I don’t like it. But I also don’t like being accused of being hysterical, because that’s one of the things I try not to be on this show."
Pirro added on "Fox & Friends" that the heated exchange was only the tip of the iceberg. After the segment, Pirro said she was confronted by Goldberg, who hurled curses her way.
"She got up in my face ... [and] says, 'F you, F you," Pirro explained.
Then, according to Pirro, Goldberg began to yell, "Get the F out of this building."
Pirro said she had seen a lot during her time as a judge, "but that was abuse."
Pirro outside News Corporation at Fox Square on December 9, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Former co-host of "The View" Megan McCain said she left the view due to hostility from her colleagues. She frequently sparred with Goldberg, who in one instance yelled at McCain to "stop talking."
"Girl, please stop talking! … Please stop talking now!" Goldberg said.
"No problem, I won’t talk the rest of the show," McCain responded.
"I’m okay with that," Goldberg said.
ROCKLEIGH, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 12: Meghan McCain attends The Algemeiner's 8th annual J100 Gala on October 12, 2021 in Rockleigh, New Jersey. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
In addition to scolding guests and her colleague, Goldberg reportedly once reprimanded the audience during a commercial break.
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"The booing is f---ing us up," Goldberg reportedly said. "It's messing with everyone's mic. You can grimace and all that. All we hear is booing."
COMMENTS ABOUT MEL GIBSON
"I don't like what he did here, but I know Mel and I know he's not a racist," Goldberg said in 2010 on "The View."
She continued, "He may be a bonehead. I can't sit and say that he's a racist, having spent time with him in my house with my kids."
Behar was taken aback by Goldberg's stance on Gibson.
She said, "Barbara [Walters] would not allow him on the show … Barbara's Jewish, he's an anti-Semite, he's a racist ... so he's done."
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