After ABC suspended late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel over his Sept. 15 monologue about MAGA’s response to Charlie Kirk’s murder, Whoopi Goldberg clapped back on Monday’s episode of “The View.”
Kimmel’s talk show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was suspended last week after he began the show by talking about Kirk‘s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, being affiliated with Trump supporters and “one of them.” He then segued in a joke about Trump‘s lame response to a question about how he was handling the loss of the Turning Point USA founder.
Right-wing media outlets noted that “The View” did not address Kimmel’s suspension last week. According to Deadline, the show that aired on Sept. 19 was taped the day before.
Goldberg commented about Kimmel’s suspension at the start of the Sept. 22 episode while noting that they were waiting to respond.
“Did y’all really think we weren’t going to talk about Jimmy Kimmel? I mean, have you watched the show over the last 29 seasons? No one silences us,” she declared. “When the news broke last week about Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, we took a breath to see if Jimmy was going to say anything about it first.”
“The View” host also said that the ladies did the same thing when CBS announced in July that Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” is ending in May.
“Someone can say something they shouldn’t and get taken off the air,” Goldberg said, “but the government cannot apply pressure to force someone to be silenced.”
“We talk about freedom of speech a lot because we are always in somebody’s mess because somebody has decided that we have said something that’s offensive,” she continued. “But we fight for everybody’s right to have freedom of speech because it means my speech is free, it means your speech is free.”
Her co-host, Ana Navarro, also chimed in and spoke against government censorship.
“I have to tell you this,” she said. “I lived through a right-wing dictatorship in Nicaragua, and I lived through a left-wing dictatorship in Nicaragua. This is what dictators and authoritarians do. It does not matter the ideology. At first, they come with it for the people with big platforms, at first they silence the press, but then they come for all of us because their intent is to scare us into silence and self-censorship.”
Fans reacted after a clip was shared with Baller Alert on Instagram.
“Whoopi not scared of them ppl,” replied one. “That’s why I f**k with Whoopi. This thin-skinned man can talk about everyone. But you say anything against him he cry,” added another.
“This President is getting ready to try to scold Whoopi in 5,4,3…,” joked another. “Yesss Miss Whoopi stands 10 toes down every time. She doesn’t scare easily,” noted one fan.
On Sunday’s episode of “Meet the Press,” Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky denounced the decision to censor the late-night comedian, per The Guardian. Trump appointed the FCC chair, Brendan Carr, and Carr reportedly used his influence to force Disney and ABC to suspend Kimmel’s show.
“Any attempt by the government to get involved with speech – I will fight,” he said.
After all the drama, ABC is putting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” back on the air on Tuesday.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” read a statement from ABC’s Walt Disney Company. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
