The View’s Whoopi Goldberg makes passionate defense of Chiefs kicker’s commencement speech

While Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker is receiving backlash for the comments he made about women and gays during a commencement speech, he has at least had support from one surprising source: Whoopi Goldberg.

The View co-host gave a passionate speech about Butker having the right to his opinion.

“I like when people say what they need to say. He’s at a Catholic college; he’s a staunch Catholic. These are his beliefs and he’s welcome to them. I don’t have to believe them, I don’t have to accept them, the ladies sitting in that audience don’t have to accept them,” she said. “The same way we want respect when Colin Kaepernick takes a knee, we want to give respect to people whose ideas are different from ours because the man who says he wants to be president, You-Know-Who, he says the way to act is to take away people’s right to say how they feel. We don’t want to be that; we don’t want to be those people.”

But not everyone agreed with Goldberg’s sentiment, especially fellow co-host Sara Haines, who thought Butker went too far, especially with his comments about the LGBTQ community, and thought Goldberg was wrong for trying to compare him to former NFL QB Colin Kaepernick, who was banished from the league for standing up against discrimination.

Haines said, “standing up for the rights of many and saying, in a social justice moment, a reminder that we’re not there yet,” she also criticized Butker for being “divergent from the majority of Catholics” when he disparaged other people with his words.”

She also said it wasn’t “Christlike” behavior.

Even Republican commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin didn’t agree with Butker’s comments either, especially when it came to women being homemakers.

“I have this huge issue with this tradwife homemaker thing. What a remarkable privilege. If you get to marry an NFL kicker who wins the Super Bowl, you too might get to be a homemaker in this economy!”

But Joy Behar may have topped them all by saying she believes the Chiefs’ kicker has mommy issues.

“I think he has mother issues,” Behar said, noting that Butker’s mother is a physicist — not a full-time homemaker like his wife. “He refers to Taylor Swift as his teammate’s girlfriend, another hugely accomplished woman he has huge disdain for women because of mommy. So, get a therapist!”

Still, Goldberg’s point was that although she may not agree with what he had to say again, she doesn’t think he should lose his job over his comments or beliefs and thinks fans should back off.

“When you say to somebody, ‘I don’t like what you said, so I’m going to get your job taken away because you disagree with me, for me, that’s an issue. It happens to us all the time,” she said.

The NFL has released a statement, in part saying that it doesn’t agree with Butker’s statement but, like Goldberg, believes he has every right to say it. It will be interesting to see if the Chiefs share those same sentiments.

{The View}