Whoopi Goldberg Returns To ‘The View’ After Holocaust Controversy

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Whoopi Goldberg is back on The View after a two week suspension following controversial remarks about the Holocaust. The 66-year-old comedian returned to the show on Monday February 14, and seemed excited to be back to work after the time away from the talk show. She also swore to keep trying to have difficult discussions and thanked those who reached out to her following the controversy.

Whoopi’s two-week suspension was announced on February 1, after she had said the Holocaust “isn’t about race” during a discussion about a school board banning Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus. Upon her return, she mentioned how diving deep into sensitive topics was par for the course on the show. “I missed you all too. There’s something kind of marvelous about being on a show like this, because we are The View, and this is what we do, and sometimes we don’t do this [as] elegantly as we could,” she said. “It’s five minutes to get in important information about topics, and that’s what we try to do everyday.”

The comedian continued and thanked those who offered her resources, and swore that she wouldn’t shy away from hard topics. “I want to thank everybody who reached out while I was away,” she said. “I listened to everything everybody had to say, and I was very grateful. I hope it keeps the important conversations happening, because we’re going to keep having tough conversations. In part, because this is what we’ve been hired to do, and it’s not always pretty, as I said, and it’s not always as other people would like to hear.”

Before pivoting to hot topic discussions, Whoopi mentioned that she felt like these were integral topics to dive into on the show. “It is an honor to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations, because they’re important. They’re important to us as a nation and to us more so as a human entity,” she said.

Following a January 31 discussion about Maus, there was tons of backlash against Whoopi, and the comedian apologized and began the next episode with a discussion with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “It is indeed about race, because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race. Now, words matter, and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, as I said, and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people, as they know,” she said.

Despite her apology, ABC News President Kim Godwin announced her suspension on February 1. “While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” she said in a statement. A source had revealed to HollywoodLife exclusively that she planned to “lay low” and take time to “educate” herself.