OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Whoopi Goldberg, a cohost of “The View,” said she may have to quit the show after she made a quip about South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham getting married.
Her comment came after White House Press Secretary Karine-Jean Pierre mentioned that Sen. Graham had changed some of his opinions on abortion and marriage rights.
“We have Lindsey Graham, Senator Graham and other and other leaders of the Republican Party who are saying, and they’re being very clear about this, folks, we got to listen to them that they want a national ban on abortions,” the press secretary said during an appearance on the show.
“Senator Graham had said maybe about a month ago, early August, that he believes when it comes to marriage, when it comes to abortion, it’s for states to decide.
“So, Senator Graham, what changed?” the press secretary said before Goldberg responded “Well, maybe he’s getting married.”
A popular rumor among some liberals is that the South Carolina senator is gay.
“Do it quick, because I know people are fooling around with our marriage rights, whoever, wherever you stand, you know,” the cohost said.
When the show came back from commercial, Goldberg, who appeared to be flustered, said she “to make clear that I was doing what I do as a comic.
“Sometimes I make jokes, and it was a joke,” the host said. “Nothing more than that.”
But then she appeared to be miffed and suggested that she spoke to producers during the break and said “I just got a whole conversation about people misunderstanding the joke.
“I mean OK,” she said. “I should probably never do this show again if this is what it’s coming to.
“It was a joke, guys, you know,” she said.
In June, Goldberg demanded that the AR-15 be made illegal and she finally got some pushback on it from a conservative guest.
Tara Setmayer, an anti-Donald Trump conservative who usually agrees with the other co-hosts, was on the show on Wednesday when Goldberg made her case.
“Listen, I understand that, but it’s not as easy when you have a country that has more guns than people,” she said as she argued that other factors, like mental health, need to be addressed. “You’re not going to be able to just ban all the guns.”
“It is easy, but the things that you could say to people that we don’t say on this show, the things you can wish on people that we don’t wish on this show to people, because we know. We’ve all met people who have had to deal with the death of a loved one at the hands of a gun,” Whoopi said. “And you can say ‘well, I wish they had more mental health checking,’ but people who don’t see the need to remove one gun, one gun! The people who don’t see a need to remove that will never see the need to make sure that people get the help.”
Setmayer argued that banning the Ar-15 would not end mass shootings, which, she argued, could be just as easily done with a handgun.
“A handgun does not turn people to dust,” Goldberg said. “Start with the first thing that can eliminate a child, you know how big a child’s body is?”
Co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin jumped into the fray, arguing that mass shootings rose after the expiration of the 1994 Violence Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.
“It’s the guns, it’s the guns, it’s the guns!” Behar insisted.
Setmayer argued that there are plenty of shootings in the inner city using handguns and other firearms, and said that even if the Ar-15 was banned people could still get it from the black market.
“It’s one gun out of the peripheral of guns that are out there,” Goldberg argued.
“So what happens to the black market, then? So let’s say we ban the AR-15. AR-15s are the most popular weapon in this country,” she said.
“Well, you know what? I’ll tell you what happens. The same thing that [is] being threatened to women who decide ‘maybe I need to go talk to somebody about an abortion,’ what do they say? You got an AR-15, we will put your ass in jail,” Goldberg declared.
“But then it has to be enforced,” Setmayer said.
