Goldberg's bold Iran comparison ignites debate on The View
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Whoopi Goldberg sparked a furious clash on The View after claiming that black people in the US are just as oppressed as people living under the Iranian regime. The panelist, who has a net worth of $60 million, flew into a rage when co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that, 'it's very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in Iran.' 'Not if you're black,' Goldberg responded.
The panelists raised their voices as Goldberg repeatedly told Griffin that, 'there's no way I can make you understand it', to which Griffin fired back: 'The Iranian regime today is nothing compared to the United States.' 'Murdering someone for their difference is not good, whoever does it. It's not good,' Goldberg responded. The hostile exchange came amid rising fears in the US that Trump could plunge into war with Iran, with the country's leader Ali Khamenei sending an ominous warning hours before The View episode that America would face 'irreparable damage' if it joins the conflict.
Griffin pointed to her clothing and argued that in Iran she wouldn't be allowed to walk around with her hair and legs showing, telling her co-hosts: 'Don't go to Tehran guys. No one at this table should go to Tehran.' ''Let me tell you about being in this country. This is the greatest country in the world. But yeah, I know that. I know. And we all know that, but every day we are worried,' Goldberg responded. 'Do we have to be worried about our kids? Are our kids going to get shot because they're running through somebody's neighborhood?'
Griffin countered: 'Nobody wants to diminish the very real problems we have in our country but there are places far darker than our country.' After Goldberg pointed out that many black Americans could not vote until 1965, Griffin noted that in Iran, 'they don't have free and fair elections in Iran... it's not even the same universe.' 'There's no way to make you understand,' Goldberg said back. Joy Behar waded into the clash as she told Griffin to 'reverse roles with a black person', to which Griffin countered: 'I think you know that Iran is a significantly worse country, Joy.'
As Goldberg claimed that black Americans suffer as much as Iranians, The View panelists waded into the possibility of US strikes on Iran as the world waits to see if Trump pulls the trigger. Host Sunny Hostin appeared to justify Iran's side of the conflict, arguing that the Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites and the assassinations of several top Iranian military leaders was illegal. She said she disagreed with Trump branding Khamenei an 'easy target', saying: 'We really need to have a bird's eye view of what's going on. If that's OK for Israel to do, if that's OK for our president to do. Is that OK for another country to do to us?'
Joy Behar added: 'Well, think of it this way, what if Canada was saying was going to build a nuclear bomb and they threatened to kill us all? What would we do?' Hostin responded: 'You have to do it diplomatically, Joy.' Behar said: 'Really? What's so diplomatic about having a nuclear bomb and threatening another country?' The View's take on the conflict comes as many of the president's diehard MAGA supporters have urged him not to enter the conflict and follow through with his isolationist platform that got him elected.
On Wednesday, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released bombshell interview clips where Texas Senator Ted Cruz appeared to admit U.S. is already actively engaged against Iranian targets. 'You said Israel was,' Carlson said, to which Cruz responded: 'I've said "we." Israel is leading them, but we're supporting them.' 'You're breaking news here,' Carlson responded. 'The U.S. government last night denied... on behalf of Trump, that we're acting on Israel's behalf in any offensive capacity.'
Earlier this week, both Carlson and Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon said on their podcasts that striking Iran would put the US on a disastrous path forward. They blamed the 'deep state' in the intelligence agencies and war hawk Republicans for swaying Trump to support Israel's military strikes on Iran. And they warned the president faced the 'end of his presidency' if he got America embroiled into another lengthy war in the Middle East.
The president bristled at Carlson's criticism, dismissing his comments at the G7. 'I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying, let him go get a television network and say it so the people listen,' Trump said. Shortly afterward, the president fired back at Carlson on social media. 'Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,' Trump wrote.
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30 minutes ago
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Actor and daytime talk-show host Whoopi Goldberg has always been one of America's great provocateurs. But this week she traded provocation for plain old stupidity. Or at least a deep indifference to logic and truth. On Wednesday, Goldberg was on The View, the mid-morning daily television programme she has co-hosted for years. This time the discussion centred on Iran, its war with Israel and the potential for US intervention. Goldberg's co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin – who is both Arab-American and politically conservative – made what ought to have been a statement of the obvious: that Iranians live under extreme tyranny and repression, lacking basic freedoms, including over what they can wear. And when they have protested the oppression they must endure, they have faced violence – or, in the case of Mahsa Amini, even death. 'The Iranians literally throw gay people off of buildings,' noted Farah. But Goldberg found it impossible to accept such a clear-sighted condemnation of a reprehensible theocratic regime. 'Let's not do that,' she countered. 'We have been known in this country to tie gay folks to the car.' And her odious descent into compare and contrast moral relativism was just getting started. Griffin tried to push back. 'I think it's very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in Iran,' she said quite reasonably. 'Not if you're black,' Goldberg retorted. No American could possibly pretend that their country is perfect, and it's impossible to ignore that many groups – my fellow African-Americans among them – still face serious challenges. But does Goldberg really think that things are as bad on the streets of the US as they are on the streets of Tehran, under an Islamist theocracy? Evidently, yes. It's easy to blast Goldberg's political and intellectual myopia, but in many ways she's not to blame. Her moral relativism merely reflects the way in which identity politics has so corrupted Western minds that problems in our own societies are weaponised in order to shut down criticism of even the most appalling totalitarian regimes. It's the same thinking that has fuelled so much progressive activism since Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7. Who are we, they chortle, to criticise Hamas or the Ayatollahs when the US remains a nation still mired in injustice and inequality? But there are vast differences between the 'regimes' in Washington and Tehran – including for African-Americans. They're so basic – free speech, the rule of law, freedom to protest, gay marriage – that it's almost comical to have to repeat them. There is no freedom of expression in Iran, no independent media or women's movement, no protection whatsoever for any of Iran's minority groups (or indeed for anyone at all). But there's nothing comical about Goldberg's world view. Nearly 350 Iranians were executed by the state in the first four months of 2025 alone – a 75 per cent increase over 2024, according to a report from Iran Human Rights. And guess what, Goldberg? Political prisoners and minorities were heavily represented within these figures – none of whom have the luxury of a daily talk show from which to demand justice. Because justice is non-existent in places like Iran and Gaza. The likes of Goldberg might point to the killing of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin as evidence that the US is a similarly arbitrary and unjust society. The difference is that Chauvin sits in jail for killing Floyd, tried amid a media frenzy by both a jury and public opinion. Mahsa Amini knew no such privilege when she was killed under police detention in 2022 for supposedly failing to adhere to Iran's strict dress codes for women. Goldberg's juvenile thinking – her belief that an America that allows her to pontificate on national television – is somehow as repressive as Iran stains the legacy of true heroes like Amini. Goldberg also undermines the very real need for continued reform in the US by insisting that we have as much catching up to do as the Iranians. I'd almost suggest that she should take a trip to Tehran, to see for herself whether her risible comparison between Iranian tyranny and American freedom really stacks up. Judging by the wilful blindness of modern progressives, however, even seeing the horror of life under the ayatollahs up close would be unlikely to change her mind.
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