‘The View’ Goes Hard at Trump After Execs Say Tone It Down
The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday that Disney executives had demanded the show veer away from politics.
The View slammed President Donald Trump for his meeting with South Africa’s president a day after a Daily Beast report revealed Disney executives wanted the panel to curb its criticism.
The opinion show’s co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin tore into the Wednesday meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, where Trump repeatedly claimed there was a “genocide” of white farmers in the nation with unverified videos.
Goldberg shot down Trump’s claims about a “genocide,” highlighting her visits to the nation as an actor—before appearing to let out an bleeped-out expletive.
“There’s no white genocide, OK?” she said. “There’s not a genocide happening. There is crime, as there is all over the world, but it’s not about killing off white people. This is just straight [expletive].”
Goldberg then laughed off the silenced remark as “gas.”
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The decision to devote The View’s first 10 minutes on Thursday to politics comes a day after the Daily Beast reported that Disney CEO Bob Iger and ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic have asked the hosts of The View in recent weeks to tone down their political focus.
Karamehmedovic met with the hosts and executive producer Brian Teta in recent weeks and suggested it needed to broaden its focus beyond politics and lean into more culture topics, including celebrity guests.
The suggestion—which was not presented as an edict—angered the hosts, who pushed back forcefully and bristled at the suggestion that their audience doesn’t want them to talk about politics.
Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger.
Kimberly White/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
The women found the request “silly,” one source said, and were “just going to keep doing their thing.”
Ana Navarro and Iger later had a conversation during Disney’s Upfront presentation day last week, where she thanked him for allowing the hosts to do their jobs in a politically fraught environment. Iger affirmed his support—but also said the hosts needed to tone down their political rhetoric, multiple sources told the Daily Beast.
ABC News did not comment. A source familiar with the situation said the network will “constantly have conversations with talent based on viewer feedback, and this instance was no different.”
The political talk continued throughout the show’s first block on Thursday, as the hosts ripped Trump’s suggestion that he would also accept a free plane from South Africa after his administration received a $400 million jet from Qatar for use as Air Force One.
After Behar acknowledged the U.S.’ official acceptance of the plane on Wednesday, Goldberg jumped in to clarify: “He has accepted the plane. The United States has not accepted the plane.”
“He may be the government, but my government says you can’t do that!” Goldberg added.
“It’s unconstitutional,” Hostin said.
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