ABC News suspended "The View" host Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks after she said the Holocaust was not about race, the network said Tuesday.
In a statement, Kim Godwin, president of ABC News, called Goldberg's comments "wrong and hurtful."
"While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments," Godwin said. "The entire ABC News organization stand in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”
Goldberg made the comments Monday morning while the panel was discussing a Tennessee school board’s banning of “Maus,” a graphic novel about the Nazi death camps.
"It’s about the Holocaust, the killing of six million people, but that didn’t bother you?" she said. "If you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it. Because the Holocaust isn’t about race. No, it’s not about race.”
Another host, Joy Behar, responded that the Nazis described Jews as a different race.
"But it’s not about race," Goldberg said. "It’s not. It’s about man’s inhumanity to other man."
When another host said that white supremacy was behind the Holocaust — and that Nazis targeted Jewish and Roma people — Goldberg said those are “white groups of people.” When a third host pointed out that the Nazis didn’t view Jews as white, Goldberg said she was “missing the point.”
"The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley," Goldberg said. "Let’s talk about it for what it is. It’s how people treat each other. It’s a problem.”
Goldberg apologized hours later.
"On today’s show, I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man,’" she said. "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."
A representative for Goldberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday, Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, told CNN that Goldberg's suspension should be an opportunity for her and the talk show "to engage in some education and introspection."
"When Whoopi apologized, not once, but twice, I accepted her apology," Greenblatt said. "I think she delivered it sincerely. I don’t think her intent was malevolent."
He added: "While she made a mistake, we need to recognize that all of us can do that, and if you apologize, you know, I think there’s an opportunity for repentance."
