{"id":179010,"date":"2025-09-24T17:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/179010\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T17:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:34:07","slug":"whoopi-goldberg-delivers-sharp-response-to-kimmels-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/179010\/","title":{"rendered":"Whoopi Goldberg Delivers Sharp Response to Kimmel’s Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cohosts of\u00a0The View<\/a> devoted the first \u201cHot Topic\u201d segment of the day on Wednesday\u2019s (September 24) new episode to the return of\u00a0Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> Live!<\/a> and his emotional opening monologue.<\/p>\n

All of the cohosts had kind words to share about Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s return, but for Whoopi Goldberg<\/a>, it was particularly emblematic of something more important: individual liberty and the freedom to speak out against the government without retribution or silencing by officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s your birthright as an American,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re not happy with what\u2019s going on, you\u2019re allowed to say. If you don\u2019t like how things are going, you\u2019re allowed to. It is your birthright. That\u2019s what that\u2019s part of what makes you an American. It\u2019s part of what makes us different than everybody else. And we acknowledge all of those Republicans who recognize that it\u2019s not a right or left right. It is the right of all Americans. So if it goes for us on the left or the middle, it also goes for you on the right. So we want to make sure that everybody can still say and be who they want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went on to, while briefly alluding to Donald Trump<\/a>\u2018s controversial speech to the United Nations, add, \u201cThere is a great pride to still have in America, in spite of what you saw at the U.N. yesterday\u2026. We are proud to be American. We\u2019re proud to do what we do, and we\u2019re proud that you all continue to watch us, whether you like what we\u2019re saying or not. We appreciate you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sara Haines<\/a> praised Kimmel for clarifying that his words about Charlie Kirk<\/a>\u2018s assassin weren\u2019t meant to \u201cmock a murder.\u201d (On his September 16 show, which aired before ABC affiliates announced their intent to preempt and the network followed suit with a suspension, \u201cWe hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did everything perfectly. I think he touched on the most important parts, like the protection of freedom of speech, but he also so emotionally recognized that his intention was never to mock a murder, and I think that\u2019s where comedians are unique. You really have to think about the person you\u2019re criticizing, because oftentimes Canadians are here to remind us that we need to hold governments accountable. We need to be able to equal opportunity offenders. We\u2019re trying to make people laugh. He was so clear on that,\u201d Haines said. \u201cI love that he really took time to say thank you to those people who disagree with me, because they deserve credit for speaking up in a moment that it was so crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joy Behar<\/a> pointed out that the attacks on Kimmel from Trump and the FCC chairperson, whose warnings of potential federal action preceded ABC\u2019s decision, are consistent with what happens in dictatorships. \u201cTrump is not the first one to do this. Putin, for example, his first actions when he took power was to was to take over a TV network that aired a comedy show that mocked him with puppets. In Iran, they\u2019ve done the same, something similar. Even in Turkey, with Erdogan, they don\u2019t like a comedians. Why? Because comedians tell the truth, make you laugh and it resonates with you. Yeah, and they do not like that,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting because they call themselves strong men, but they actually are very weak men because they can\u2019t take a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alyssa Farah Griffin<\/a> praised Kimmel for humbling himself in the situation and pointing to its broader implications, saying, \u201cWhat I loved was that Jimmy Kimmel made this bigger than himself. That line was key to me: \u2018The show is not important. What is important is that we live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.\u2019 He talked about his staff of 200 people multiple times, fellow late-night hosts who\u2019ve come under threat. He talked about these damning reports that the Pentagon is cracking down on free speech. He\u2019s talking about something so much bigger than this particular drama, and I thought that that was big of him to realize that he\u2019s a symbol of a struggle that\u2019s going on, but speaks to the broader moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, Sunny Hostin<\/a> echoed Griffin\u2019s point about reports that the Pentagon is now requiring reporters to agree that they will only report on pre-approved information. \u201cNow that is scary, and Kimmel says, \u2018I know that\u2019s not as interesting as muzzling a comedian, but it\u2019s so important to have a free press, and it is nuts that we aren\u2019t paying more attention to it,\u2019 and I think that\u2019s very, very important,\u201d Hostin noted.<\/p>\n

The View, weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cohosts of\u00a0The View devoted the first \u201cHot Topic\u201d segment of the day on Wednesday\u2019s (September 24) new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-179010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}