Whoopi Goldberg is not impressed with actress Debra Messing’s call to out the attendees of an upcoming Trump fundraiser in Beverly Hills. “Please print a list of all attendees please,” the Will & Grace star tweeted at The Hollywood Reporter over the holiday weekend. “The public has a right to know.”
After The View co-host Joy Behar joked during Tuesday’s season premiere that instead of a blacklist, they “should call it a white-list,” Goldberg turned serious.
“Listen, the last time people did this, people ended up killing themselves,” Goldberg said, referring to Joseph McCarthy’s Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s. “This is not a good idea, OK?” As Meghan McCain nodded in agreement, “Your idea of who you don't want to work with is your personal business. Do not encourage people to print out lists because the next list that comes out, your name will be on and then people will be coming after you.”
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“We had something called a blacklist and a lot of really good people were accused of stuff,” she continued. “Nobody cared whether it was true or not. They were accused. And they lost their right to work. You don't have the right! In this country, people can vote for who they want to. That is one of the great rights of this country.”
As the uproar over both the Hollywood fundraiser and Messings’ tweets raged, President Donald Trump himself jumped into the fray, claiming in a tweet that when both he and the actress worked at NBC, she came up to him at an event and “profusely thanked me, even calling me ‘Sir,’” and adding, “How times have changed!”
“You don't have to like it, but we don't go after people because we don't like who they voted for,” Goldberg added. “We don't go after them that way. We can talk about issues and stuff, but we don't print out lists.”
Speaking to Messing and her Will & Grace co-star Eric McCormack, who joined her in her call to print the list, Goldberg said, “I'm sure you guys misspoke when you said that because it sounded like a good idea. Think about it. Read about it. Remember what the blacklist actually meant to people and don't encourage anyone—anyone to do it.”
