Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended for two week from The View.
ET confirms that the 66-year-old co-host will not appear on the daytime talk show after comments she made on Monday's episode of The View about the Holocaust.
"Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments," Kim Godwin, President, ABC News, said in a statement to ET. "The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities."
In a note to ABC staff obtained by ET, Godwin adds that "these decisions are never easy, but necessary."
"Just last week I noted that the culture at ABC News is one that is driven, kind, inclusive, respectful, and transparent. Whoopi's comments do not align with those views," Godwin wrote in part. "It was important that Whoopi had a chance to address her comments on the show today where she made them and have an educational conversation with Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League."
In another portion of her letter, Godwin added, "But words matter and we must be cognizant of the impact our words have," before sharing the statement that she would go on to release.
On Monday's episode, the panel was discussing the recent banning of Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, by a school board in Tennessee.
Goldberg stated, "The Holocaust isn't about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man...These are two white groups of people."
Her co-host, Joy Behar, disagreed, responding, "Well, they considered Jews a different race."
Many online began criticizing Goldberg for her remarks, and on Monday evening, she apologized on Twitter, writing, "On today's show, I said the Holocaust 'is not about race, but about man's inhumanity to man.' I should have said it is about both."
"As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, 'The Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people -- who they deemed to be an inferior race.' I stand corrected," she continued, giving her "sincerest apologies." "The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I'm sorry for the hurt I have caused."
That night, during her appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the Sister Act star shed light on what led her to make the remark earlier that day.
"I feel, being Black, when we talk about race it's a very different thing to me... People got very, very, very angry and still are angry. I'm getting all the mail from folks, and very real anger because people feel very differently," she told Stephen Colbert. "As a Black person, I think of race as something people can see. So I see you and what race you are."
On Tuesday's episode of The View, Goldberg said that she "misspoke" but that "words matter." Greenblatt was the show's guest and offered Goldberg and The View's audience more insight about the subject.
"Yesterday on our show, I misspoke," said Goldberg. "I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined, because my words upset so many people, which was never intentional and I understand why now. For that, I'm deeply grateful. The information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things."
"[The Holocaust] is indeed about race," she continued, "because Hitler and the Nazis considered the Jews to be an inferior race. Now, words matter, and mine are no exception. I regret my comments and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people, as they know and y'all know, because I've always done that."
See more in the video below.
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