“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg voiced support of the Knicks’ plan to meet President Trump in the wake of their NBA championship triumph, saying, “I want all those black men to stand in our house.”
During a Thursday debate over whether the team should have accepted the offer, Goldberg gave the surprising defense of Knicks owner James Dolan’s decision to go, making them the first NBA team to visit Trump’s White House.
“I want them to go. I want all those black men to stand in our house and remind all of those people, as we tried to remind the vice president, that when you try to destroy one part of history, you’re destroying all of our histories,” said Goldberg, a longtime critic of Trump’s.
“And they, as champions – not only as amazing basketball players, but as people who were down and came back up – this is what this looks like. This is what this looks like,” she continued.
“So, I want them to go. I want them to go. If only so the kids know that nobody – nobody – can keep you down if you are rising up.”
The audience went wild after Goldberg’s defense of the Knicks’ plan to visit Trump, yelling “yeah!” and whooping.
Still, many of Goldberg’s co-hosts took the opposite stance, or said they were torn on the issue.
Co-host Sara Haines said the White House invitation puts the team in “a really precarious position.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed, saying, “I think it puts the players in such an uncomfortable position.”
“I’m feeling two ways about it,” co-host Joy Behar said. “Like, yes, maybe you have to respect the White House. You don’t have to respect who’s in the White House, though.”
Sunny Hostin noted that the previous five NBA championship teams during the Trump administrations have refused to meet with the president, saying, “I think there’s a reason for it, and that’s because he politicizes the events that come before him.”
After Goldberg’s defense of the Knicks’ move, Hostin said: “I remain very conflicted over it.”
She argued that the invite puts “a lot of pressure on the captain of the team, Jalen Brunson,” especially after “Jose Alvarado, the Puerto Rican player, was already approached … and he said, ‘I will do what my team decides.’”
“The View” hosts also drew comparisons to the recent UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House, when American wrestler Josh Hokit bizarrely called former First Lady Michelle Obama “a man.”
“What you were saying about showing up there and standing tall,” Haines said, addressing Goldberg.
“We just had a UFC fighter who said a degrading slur about a former first lady. And why don’t you [the Knicks] just show up and show them what real men look like?”
“Exactly!” Griffin exclaimed.
Dolan, a friend of Trump’s, said Wednesday the Knicks had accepted an invite from the president, who attended game three of the NBA Finals on June 8 at Madison Square Garden.
“I’ve known him for 30 years, and I’m very proud to bring the team to the White House,” Dolan said on WFAN.