(NewsNation Now) — “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended for two weeks after saying the Holocaust was not racially motivated.
“I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities” ABC News President Kim Godwin said in a statement.
Goldberg has apologized for the comments.
“My words upset so many people, which was never my intention,” she said on the show Tuesday. “I understand why now and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things.”
“The View” brought on Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League and author of “It Could Happen Here,” on Tuesday to discuss why her words had been hurtful.
“Jewish people at the moment are feeling besieged,” Greenblatt said.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, praised Goldberg for being outspoken over the years on social issues but said he struggled to understand her statement on the Holocaust.
“The only explanation that I have for it is that there is a new definition of racism that has been put out there in the public recently that defines racism exclusively as the targeting of people of color. And obviously history teaches us otherwise,” Cooper said.
“Everything about Nazi Germany and about the targeting of the Jews and about the Holocaust was about race and racism. That’s the unfortunate, unassailable historic fact,” he said.