OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Whoopi Goldberg used to be a comedian, but in recent times as a host of the ABC talk show “The View,” she has become painfully unfunny. And she was furious when she told a quip that was originally done by former Vice President Mike Pence.
“Pence claimed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took two months of, quote, ‘maternity leave,’ during the nationwide airline crisis, Which makes Pete the only person in human history to have a child, and everyone else gets postpartum depression,” she said to the laughter of the audience and even cohost Joy Behar.
But Goldberg, who once upon a time was rather comical, did not like the laughter and scolded the audience.
“Now, I will point out, this joke wasn’t funny when Tucker Carlson did it, it wasn’t funny when Lauren Boebert did it, it’s just not funny. It’s just not a funny joke,” she said.
Pence told the quip on Saturday at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, which is a conference that includes politicians and members of the press.
It comes at a time when Pence is rumored to be seeking the Republican nomination for the presidency and as he is being asked to testify against former President Donald Trump.
WATCH: Whoopi Goldberg frustrated after retelling joke Mike Pence made about Buttigieg's 'maternity leave.' Says it's 'NOT FUNNY' as the audience bursts into laughter.
WHOOPI: "This joke wasn't funny when @TuckerCarlson did it…It's just NOT funny. It's just NOT a funny joke!" pic.twitter.com/kN9uToOW1Q
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 14, 2023
Former President Trump has gone to federal court with a motion to stop former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying before a grand jury about election matters because he says the information is “privileged.”
“The request, in a new filing submitted secretly in a sealed proceeding on Friday, comes after the Trump team had already indicated to special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into Trump, that the former president intended to assert privilege over Pence’s testimony,” CNN reported.
It comes after the Department of Justice asked a judge to compel the former vice president to testify before the grand jury.
Trump and Pence are on the same page as the former vice president has also vowed to fight the subpoena.
The New York Times reported.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is planning to fight a federal grand jury subpoena compelling him to testify in the investigation into President Donald J. Trump’s actions leading up to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a person familiar with Mr. Pence’s plans.
Mr. Pence is expected to argue that the vice president’s role as the president of the Senate means that he is protected from legal scrutiny of his official duties by the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, intended to protect the separation of powers.
Such an approach would be novel and a departure from the more traditional argument that a vice president’s interactions with a president would be subject to executive privilege.
The judge overseeing the grand jury testimony in the case of former President Donald Trump in Georgia has spoken after the head juror gave a series of interviews. Judge Robert C. McBurney said to ABC News that jurors “can talk about the final report” but that it can get “problematic” if they start to “synthesize the testimony.”
“McBurney said in an interview that after the grand jury submitted its report in January, he held a “farewell session,” at the request of the district attorney, in which he “reminded them of their oath, which is a statutory obligation that they not discuss with anyone outside their group their deliberations — that’s the one word that’s in the oath,” ABC News reported. “McBurney emphasized that ‘it’s important for people to understand that witness testimony is not deliberations.'”
“I explained you don’t talk about what the group discussed about the witnesses’ testimony, but you can talk about witness testimony,” the judge said. “You could talk about things that the assistant district attorneys told you. … And then finally, you can talk about the final report because that is the product of your deliberations, but it’s not your deliberations.”
Legal experts believe that former President Trump may have caught a huge break in a case involving a grand jury investigation for alleged election tampering in Georgia following the 2020 election.