The View’s Whoopi Goldberg was literally spitting mad on Wednesday over Texas media’s release of the hallway surveillance footage from the horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 young children and two teachers dead.
Goldberg’s anger over the video, which reveals in full the delayed response from Uvalde law enforcement to confront the gunman, was aimed squarely at the Austin American-Statesman for its decision to publish the footage. In her view, the paper disrespected the affected families as they had yet to see the video, adding that the American-Statesman was “being thoughtless about the parents who have to relive this every day because it's on television.”
The video’s leak has been met with outrage by both family members and Texas officials, largely because officials had said they planned to show the footage to the families this coming Sunday before releasing it to the public. At the same time, not all residents and relatives were upset with the paper.
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For instance, after the Uvalde mayor and a city council member called the media “chickenshit” for publishing the footage, one resident asked if they thought the cops were also “chickens.” Another family member told a local news station that she’s “happy it is released,” though she added that she wished “they would have waited” until after impacted families got a chance to see it first. The American-Statesman has defended its decision, stating that its “goal is to continue to bring to light what happened at Robb Elementary, which the families and friends of the Uvalde victims have long been asking for.”
Telling viewers on Wednesday that “we’re not going to show you” the video, Goldberg declared that “this story really, really makes me insane.” Adding that many parents of the victims are outraged at the paper, she immediately launched into a heated tirade over the leak.
“This was released, but the paper is defending their decision. I find it indefensible,” she exclaimed, adding: “You didn't have to do this. They were going to see this video on Sunday. You did not have to release this video and leak it!”Goldberg continued: “It's appalling and you should be ashamed of yourselves for doing that, for being thoughtless about the parents who have to relive this every day because it's on television!”
The longtime View host’s anger at the media only continued to grow, resulting in her actually spitting at the floor to show how mad she was.
“Every time you turn around, you got to see it, you know, and I don't know if you guys over at that newspaper have kids, but shame on you,” Goldberg shouted. “Shame on—I know it doesn't mean anything coming from me, but shame on you!”
The rest of the table, meanwhile, gave slightly more nuanced takes. Co-host Sunny Hostin said that while the families should have seen this footage first, she believes it is necessary for the public to view this, especially since the police and other officials pushed a false narrative about law enforcement’s actions immediately after the shooting.
ABC News anchor Juju Chang, serving as a guest co-host, added that the executive editor at the paper noted that they “had to bear witness to history” and that “truth always wins.”
Later on in the program, though, one of The View’s guests also agreed that the video should not have been released. Manuel Oliver, a father of a Parkland shooting victim and gun-reform activist, told the panel “there was no need to show the video” to the public.
“I don’t think there’s a need—and that’s the argument that they showed this video, the American people need to see this—the American people need to understand that gun violence is an epidemic, and we need to get rid of it,” Oliver said. “And this video is not helping to make that happen.”
