Free Republic

New York’s controversial congestion pricing toll has yet another high profile critic — Whoopi Goldberg. The 68-year-old joined the chorus of opponents when she ripped the contentious plan to hit drivers with a $15 toll to enter Midtown Manhattan during Gov. Kathy Hochul’s appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Wednesday. “This is a huge deal because I can afford it, don’t get me wrong, I can afford it, but a lot of my friends who drive in every day, who left here because they couldn’t afford to live here anymore, can’t,” Goldberg randomly said at the tail-end of the governor’s...

Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of The View, fretted this week the Supreme Court’s decision to hear oral arguments on former President Donald Trump’s immunity could deliver dictatorship to the point of speculating President Joe Biden could “throw every Republican in jail.” “The Supreme Court won’t hear oral arguments until the end of April. Let’s look at a scenario where the Supreme Court says, ‘Yes, he has all those rights. He is immune from everything.’ You know what Joe Biden could do since he presently president? He could throw every Republican in jail,” she said. As the audience laughed and began to...

The article below (except the author's note) is from 2018. Author's Note: Originally published to great acclaim in the American Spectator on 6/29/18, my essay provoked a furious response from the GOP’s “intellectual” class and led to a serious of articles from both sides of the political spectrum including: Jonathan Chait, Michael Gerson, Michael Doran, Mark Bauerlein, and Jonah Goldberg of course. After my article appeared, the Weekly Standard shut down, the National Review kicked out Jonah Goldberg (who now works at CNN) and David French (who now works at the New York Times). As for Bill Kristol, he went...

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” that former President Donald Trump will “take all the journalists” and “gay folks” to “disappear” them. Goldberg said, “Beware the media. That voting block has lots of issues they want to address. They do, and they have every right to demand that from whoever the candidate is going to be. But I will say this until it’s time to go vote, beware the media telling us what we’re doing. Only you know what you’re doing. You know what’s upsetting you, and you will discuss it when you go and make...

Former National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg claimed Thursday that small donors in the Republican primary were a problem “for democracy” and “just venting their spleen” rather than acting strategically. “Small donors in Iowa are more important as an indicator of grassroots support than anything else. But I also think we’re dealing with a time where there’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of cheering and self-congratulations about the rise of small donors a decade ago,” Goldberg told “Inside Politics” host Dana Bash. “Now small donors are one of the biggest problems for democracy, for the GOP. Because small donor...

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” that women were “watching” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) because of his anti-woke agenda. On Fox News, DeSantis said, “Because everyone knows if I’m the nominee, I will beat Biden, serve two terms, and I will be able to destroy leftism in this country and leave woke ideology on the dustbin of history.” Co-host Joy Behar said, “Yale University will take anybody these days? He went to Yale. He will destroy leftism. Really? That’s a lot of people in the country. And he will get rid of wokism? You know what,...

Can we talk? No? Okay. But I still need to keep a channel open to you. Volatire is supposed to have said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." I take that as the classic liberal position. I think it's another deliberate manipulation, most effectively conveyed by Marxist and U.S. State Dept. official, Herbert Marcuse, in what is called "repressive tolerance", specifically that only some opinions are acceptable, those that advance the manipulators' interest, but more generally, the undoing of Voltaire's sentiment, that anything is justified that is necessary...

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) presidential bid will have to deal with “gay folks” rising up and fighting for what they need. Discussing DeSantis’ presidential announcement, Goldberg said, “He has to work on, be articulate, so we know what you’re talking about. I don’t understand. I didn’t know what he was saying. Look, you know what, this idea of announcing on Twitter. I’m old and I’m okay being old, do that on television. Okay? I want to see you do it on television. I want to see you actually take...

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Monday on ABC’s “The View” that Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) has “Clarence Thomas Syndrome” and used a racist dog whistle during his 2024 Republican presidential bid announcement.” Goldberg said, “If you are going to have talk about personal responsibility. I mean, you know, all they do is talk about a victim. ‘I won the election, I won, I won, I won.’ Come on now, this may have been a bit much, this year, you know?”

Is the GOP becoming a dysfunctional chatroom? In economics, Gresham’s law on currency markets holds that “bad money drives out good.” That principle also applies to the comment sections on online sites. In comments sections — including such mega-versions like Twitter — the nastiest commenters post more, and more obnoxiously, than the decent ones until, eventually, the decent folk just decide not to hang out anymore. The only remedy for this is comment moderation, where grown-ups in charge try to thwart the trolls lest they lose their more valuable customers. In Tim Miller’s book, “Why We Did It,” the former...

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that the Department of Justice should investigate Fox News for its role in recruiting domestic terrorists. Goldberg said, “I have a question. How come this is not thought of as being recruiting? How come they’re not thinking about this as radicalizing?” Co-host Sunny Hostin asked, “Like recruiting domestic terrorists?”

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Thursday on ABC’s “The View” that she believed Republicans were “snowflakes” who want to get “rid” of women running amuck doing things, drag queens and people of color. Goldberg said, “Maher had some criticisms for the other side of the aisle, claiming the left lost the definition of woke.” On CNN, comedian Bill Maher said, “Democrats sometimes can take it too far. I would categorize liberal as different than woke. Woke started out as a good thing. An alert to injustice, who can be against that? But became an eye roll because they love diversity...

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that “politics got in the way of a lot of looking for the truth” on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic while discussing FBI Director Chris Wray agreeing with the U.S. Department of Energy that COVID likely came from a Chinese lab leak. Goldberg said, “The politics got in the way of a lot of looking for the truth, but they still are not saying definitively, and that’s a problem. They still don’t know for sure. You know, who knows where it came from? Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t....

Whoopi Goldberg asked her co-hosts Monday on ABC’s “The View” if “white people” needed to be beaten by police before there was police reform. Discussing the death of Tyre Nichols, Goldberg said, “Peaceful protests continued nationwide after Friday’s release of police footage showing officers savagely beating Tyre Nichols in Memphis. So far, five cops have been charged with second-degree murder and kidnapping. I asked this question way too many times at this table, but you know, when will the brutality finally lead to some police reform from the ground up? Because clearly, it doesn’t matter if it’s a white policeman...

“The tapes are the real man — mean, vindictive, panicky, striking first in anticipation of being struck, trying to lift his own friable self-esteem by shoving others down,” Gary Wills wrote of Richard Nixon in the 2017 preface to his book, “Nixon Agonistes.” Wills added, perhaps unfairly, that “Nixon’s real tragedy is that he never had the stature to be a tragic hero. He is the stuff of sad (almost heartbreaking) comedy.” The passage comes to mind as we close out Donald Trump’s annus horribilis, during which he supplanted Nixon as the saddest figure in post-presidential politics. The Jan. 6...

After causing an uproar the first time around, comedian and TV host Whoopi Goldberg again claimed the Holocaust was not racial in nature but was an example of “white on white” violence, because both Nazis and Jews are white people. Goldberg was suspended from her job co-hosting “The View” for two weeks earlier this year over similar remarks during one episode.

The chair of a legislative task force presented a plan to a panel of Oregon lawmakers Thursday at the state Capitol that would fundamentally change health care insurance in Oregon and create a public system that would provide coverage for every person in the state. Dr. Bruce Goldberg told the members of the Senate Interim Committee on Health Care that the proposed new program would cost less than the current health insurance system and would eliminate deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, and other out-of-pocket costs for those covered by the state program. “This plan removes obstacles that currently exists for equitable care....

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” that Fox News owned some responsibility for inciting political violence in the wake of the attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband, Paul Pelosi. Goldberg said, “So, the attacker, who had previously posted QAnon conspiracy theories on social media, also had zip ties and told the authorities he intended to break the Speaker’s kneecaps if she lied to him, I mean. Is this? What else needs to happen? I mean, you know, people have been making all kinds of crazy comments. RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Joe Biden didn’t talk...

Lucianne Goldberg died last week at the grand age of eighty-seven, and still the eponymous proprietrix of Lucianne.com, an early conservative news aggregator and one I continue to enjoy. A quarter-century ago, she became one of the most famous figures in America, as the confidante who persuaded Linda Tripp to tape her conversations with Monica Lewinsky and thus set in motion the impeachment of Bill Clinton. I can't claim to have been a close friend, but John Podhoretz's affectionate portrait accords with my own trio of brief interactions. She was tough, and she survived the Clintonites' efforts to destroy her,...

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Thursday on ABC’s “The View” that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was “ignorant as hell” for saying electing Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker would change the narrative that Republicans are racist. Wednesday on FNC’s “Hannity,” Graham said, “They’re beating all of our guys up, but what is it about this guy? He changes the entire narrative of the left. We’re a party of racists, Sean. Me and you are racists. The Republican Party is racist. Well, what happens when the Republican Party elects and nominates Herschel Walker, an African American, black Heisman Trophy winner, right?...