Whoopi Goldberg had time Thursday after new conservative co-host Abby Huntsman continued her criticism of folks who kneel during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.
“Where I stand on this, I do think kneeling for the national anthem is disrespectful,” Huntsman said on “The View“, doubling down on her argument earlier this week where she criticized Nike’s new ad campaign featuring former NFL star Colin Kaepernick.
“I was thinking morning about what the national anthem means to me,” she added, before rattling off reasons why she chooses to stand a place her hand over her heart. “I realized it means something different for everybody and everyone’s gonna have a different reaction.”
It wasn’t long before Goldberg chimed in, dropping several truth bombs that poked holes in Huntman’s argument.
“One of the biggest disconnects that I think … is that for some reason these [NFL players] are not patriotic,” she began. “I want to point out that a lot of the folks in the NFL, their fathers and grandfathers went to war because they were the first ones called in Vietnam and in all other places …”
Goldberg explained that it’s in the style of “fascists” to try to quell dissent and noted that the American flag “doesn’t cover everyone the same.”
“We can be patriotic. We can be heroes. But we can also be angry,” she added. “Thank god, thank god the founding fathers said listen, you have the right to protest — and as long as you’re protesting and not hitting anybody, hurting anybody, we’re not mad at you.”
Co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar also weighed in on the issue. Hostin sternly reminded Huntsman that protesting is a constitutionally protected act, noting that folks can choose to protest however they please. Hostin added that the greatest display of patriotism is folks being angry enough that America has not reached it’s ideal and have the courage to say so via protest.
“Ya know, white people need to reverse roles a little bit with people of color in this country so they can understand what’s going on,” Behar quipped, drawing raucous applause.
Watch more in the clip below.
