During Monday’s episode of The View, co-host Whoopi Goldberg made an offhand–and frankly rather inoffensive–joke about President Donald Trump using an autopen. On the heels of the Trump administration wanting to null and void former President Joe Biden’s pardons because he used an autopen, it is actually the perfect place to slot in a joke.
However, co-host Sunny Hostin, who is the show’s legal expert, later passed Goldberg a note. It asked her to clarify a statement she made earlier in the show, which was the autopen joke. Furious, Goldberg ripped the note up on air.
“What the hell? What?” said Goldberg. “We don’t know if Trump used an autopen to pardon, it was a joke!”
When Goldberg pushed back against the need for clarification, Hostin pushed back as well, reminding Goldberg that they didn’t know if Trump had used an autopen or not.
Goldberg, incensed, said, “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 makes a point. The View used to be known for its fairly hot takes; it was, after all, what drew a lot of viewers in. However, as time has gone on, it hasn’t been quite so easy to have the heft the show used to. There were times when it had biting criticism, and was known for its hot takes.
However, as we have seen this year with the Jimmy Kimmel incident, media are terrified of offending Trump. That in itself is alarming, because we are a country built on freedom of speech, regardless of who is in office. Goldberg was right to push back, because if we can’t even tell jokes anymore, then what is the point?
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