Whoopi Goldberg ripped up a legal correction from production staff after making an autopen “joke” about President Trump on “The View.”
Goldberg had been discussing Trump’s appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes” with her co-stars on Monday’s episode of the ABC talk show before her outrage ensued.
Sunny Hostin brought up how Trump said during the sit-down that he didn’t know anything about Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s pardon — even though he pardoned the convicted crypto billionaire last month.
ABC
“The Trump family has made about $1.8 billion, profited off of this government and he said that Joe Biden didn’t know who he was pardoning using an autopen,” Hostin said, referring to how Biden’s staffers used an autopen to sign several pardons during the last moments of his presidency.
“How come you don’t know who this guy is?” Hostin asked of Trump, prompting Goldberg to chime in with a joke, “Because he used an autopen.”
An autopen is a machine that replicates a person’s signature using a pen or pencil attached to a mechanical arm. The device is used to sign documents in bulk.
The co-hosts moved on from the topic and were on a new conversation when Hostin was seen sliding a piece of paper over to Goldberg for her to read.
“What the hell? What?” Goldberg said with surprise before reading the note aloud. “We don’t know if Trump used an autopen to pardon.”
Goldberg, 69, angrily shouted, “It was a joke!” before ripping the note to shreds.
“I’m sorry. The hardest thing about this job now is no one understands nuance,” Goldberg complained. “You know when you hear a joke, when somebody is fooling around, when they’re not saying something specific.”
Goldberg believes she was very clearly making a joke and that her audience will know when she’s being serious.
“Especially on this show. I’m very specific when I’m pointing stuff out,” she said. “When I’m making jokes, you know when I’m making jokes. This is ridiculous.”
The note that Hostin had passed to Whoopi came straight from the show’s production team, Page Six confirmed.
A rep for “The View” did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
Staffers may have been playing it safe after The Post reported that the ladies of “The View” were told to tone down their criticism of Trump on air after ABC’s latest round of layoffs.
In February, sources claimed that there was growing tension on set after the show’s executive producer, Brian Teta, asked staffers to go “easy” on Trump-related discussions ahead of the inauguration.
An insider close to Goldberg, Hostin, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro also told The Post that morale was low amid cost-cutting efforts.
