Whoopi Goldberg Directly Addresses The Audience After A Heated Segment On The View
"The View" audiences are used to heated arguments between the show's hosts, but they don't always get an apology when it happens. On the April 6, 2022, episode of the talk show, regular hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, and Sunny Hostin got into a heated discussion with guest host Stephanie Grisham that earned viewers a humorous expression of regret from Goldberg.
Following a clip of actor Sean Penn's appearance on the Fox News show "Hannity" on April 5, the five opened their show with a conversation about Russia and Ukraine. According to Newsweek, Penn and Sean Hannity had discussed a documentary Penn has been filming in Ukraine since before Russia's invasion of the country, which led them to agree on the heroism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the video shown on "The View," Penn told Hannity, "We all talk about how divisive, how divided things are here, but when you step into a country of such incredible unity, you realize what we've all been missing." Hostin kicked off the discussion by expressing doubt that Penn's appearance on the Fox News show would make that network's viewers more sympathetic to the Ukrainian people, many of whom have been left homeless following bombings and have fled their country for safety (via NBC News). Things turned heated when the topic of immigration came up, and Grisham, a former White House press secretary who served on First Lady Melania Trump's staff, disagreed with Raines, Goldberg, and Behar on the topic.
Goldberg said she was seated at a crabby table
Grisham came under fire from "The View" hosts when she argued that she'd seen firsthand how disastrous open borders could be for a country. "I've seen the human trafficking that can be done," said Grisham, who noted she was from Arizona. After claiming open borders brought a criminal element and put people in danger, she argued immigrants should always seek entry legally. However, she agreed Ukrainians should be able to seek refuge in the United States, prompting Hostin to say, "It seems to me the law is okay for some people but not okay for people who look like me, and I don't like that." Goldberg agreed, noting Grisham seemed more comfortable allowing white immigrants into the country than those who are brown or Black.
Following the exchange, "The View" returned from a commercial break to show Goldberg posed behind Behar and Hostin. In a clip tweeted by the show, Goldberg addressed the audience directly. "Before we continue, I feel it is important for me to allow the audience to know that today we are seated at a very crabby table," she says. "Crabby and cranky ... This happens from time to time."