‘The View’ Cohosts Deny Being ‘Silenced’ On Jimmy Kimmel: Vow To ‘Hold Those in Power Accountable’

Whoopi Goldberg and her cohosts on The View finally addressed Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension on Monday, September 22.

“Now, look, did y’all really think we weren’t gonna talk about Jimmy Kimmel?” she asked the audience, according to People. “I mean, have you watched the show over the last 29 seasons? So you know no one silences us.”

Her comments came amid concerns from fans that the hosts had avoided discussing ABC’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air because of FCC chair Brendan Carr’s comments that the daytime show could be next.

Goldberg explained they didn’t mention the news on the September 18 episode because “we took a breath to see if Jimmy was going to say anything about it first.” The next day’s show was pre-taped, so September 22 was their first opportunity to dive into the topic.

“To be clear: you can not like a show and it can go off the air. Someone can say something they shouldn’t and get taken off the air. But the government cannot — cannot — apply pressure to force someone to be silenced,” Goldberg said, as her cohosts agreed.

Lawyer and cohost Sunny Hostin pointed out, “Our founders drafted the First Amendment specifically to protect the rights of citizens who criticize the government.”

And the show’s most traditionally conservative cohost, Alyssa Farah Griffin, agreed. “The First Amendment is the first for a reason because you need to be able to hold those in power accountable.”

As the National Enquirer previously reported, ABC’s indefinitely suspended Kimmel’s show after Nexstar Media Group — which operates 32 ABC stations — decided to preempt it over the 57-year-old host’s comments on conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death.

The View played clips from senators Rand Paul, Chris Murphy and Ted Cruz criticizing Carr’s decision to speak out about the situation during an interview with Benny Johnson on September 17.

“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” Carr said in the interview.

The next day, Carr said on The Scott Jennings Radio Show, “I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether The View and some of the programs that you have still qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place.”