Whoopi Goldberg issues apology for comparing conservative group to neo-Nazis

Whoopi Goldberg made time on Thursday’s episode of ABC’s “The View” to apologize for comparing the conservative organization Turning Point USA to neo-Nazis.

“In Monday’s conversation about Turning Point USA, I put the young people at the conference in the same category as the protesters outside, and I don’t like it when people make assumptions about me,” Goldberg said, Fox News reports.  “And it’s not any better when I make assumptions about other people, which I did. So, my bad, I’m sorry.”

The controversy started Monday when “The View” co-hosts mocked the white supremacist protesters outside a TPUSA Student Action Summit last weekend in Tampa, Florida. Turning Point USA is a “nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative values on high school, college, and university campuses” according to the group’s website. 

“Neo-Nazis were out there in the front of the conference with anti-Semitic slurs and, you know, the Nazi swastika and a picture of a so-called Jewish person with exaggerated features, just like (Joseph) Goebbels did during the Third Reich. It’s the same thing, right out of that same playbook,” co-host Joy Behar said on the show, as reported by Fox News. 

When Turning Point got wind of the remarks, the group reportedly threatened the network with legal action if the hosts didn’t issue a retraction. 

Later in the same episode on Monday, a disclaimer was read informing viewers that “Turning Point USA condemned the neo-Nazis protesters who had ‘nothing to do’ with the organization,” but Goldberg noted that the organization “let them in, and you knew what they were,” she said, Fox News reports.

Following the remarks, ABC News was issued a cease-and-desist from counsel for the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, Salon reports.

“The false statements of fact intentionally made during The View’s July 25th segment were unquestionably harmful to TPUSA’s reputation and brought the organization and its student affiliates into disrepute with the public, potential donors, and current and future business partners, posing a significant financial loss to the organization,” TPUSA in-house counsel Veronica Peterson wrote in the cease-and-desist, according to Salon.

“The View hosts intentionally and falsely associated TPUSA with neo-Nazi protestors outside the event placing TPUSA in denigrating and false light and negatively impacting its public perception. Such action will not be tolerated,” the cease-and-desist states.

“Specifically, The View hosts insidiously and cavalierly stated that TPUSA ‘let [neo-Nazis] in’ to its SAS event, metaphorically ’embrase[d] them’ [sic] and that neo-Nazis were ‘in the mix of people.’ The assertion that TPUSA is complicit or affiliated in any way with the neo-Nazi protesters outside the event is outlandish, false, defamatory, and disgraceful,” the cease-and-desist continues. 

ABC News was given a July 27 deadline to have “The View” hosts issue a retraction and apologize. On Wednesday’s episode, co-host Sara Haines read a note to viewers clarifying the previous remarks made on the show. 

“On Monday we talked about the fact that there were openly neo-Nazi demonstrators outside the Florida Student Action Summit of the Turning Point USA group. We want to make clear that these demonstrators were gathered outside the event and that they were not invited or endorsed by Turning Point USA,” she said, according to Fox News.

“A Turning Point USA spokesman said the group ‘100 percent condemns those ideologies’ and said Turning Point USA security tried to remove the neo-Nazis from the area but could not because they were on public property,” Haines continued.

“Also, Turning Point USA wanted us to clarify that this was a Turning Point USA Summit, and not a Republican Party event. So, we apologize for anything we said that may have been unclear on these points.”

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