Whoopi Goldberg shouted down the in-studio audience of The View on Thursday for jeering New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu over his pro-gun stance, telling the crowd “no booing” while explaining that all guests should be treated with respect.
Sununu, who is mulling a 2024 White House run as a moderate Republican, appeared on the ABC talk show to hype up his potential presidential bid and was pressed by the mostly liberal panel on issues such as abortion and gun violence. Toward the end of the interview, co-host Sunny Hostin grilled the governor on his reluctance to back an assault-weapons ban in light of the surge of American mass shootings.
“If your argument is, if we have more gun laws, Chicago would be the safest place in the country,” Sununu began to respond, before Hostin pushed back: “But the problem with that argument, the guns that are used in Chicago are coming from states that have looser gun laws.”
The New Hampshire governor went on to criticize Democrats for not passing more gun restrictions when they recently controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House before boasting that he has “the safest state in the country.” He then said that mental-health access should be the main focus when dealing with mass shootings.
Shifting the discussion back to assault-style rifles, the weapon of choice for most mass shooters, Goldberg asked Sununu why he is “holding on to one gun” and not willing to ban AR-15s.
“Again, if that was easy, the Democrats would have done it. They didn’t do it because—,” the governor retorted, prompting host Joy Behar to interject.
“Forget about the Democrats, what are you going to do?” Behar wondered.
“Again, I’m not banning any guns. I’m going to provide access to mental health. We’ll get at the core of the issue,” the governor replied, prompting audible groans and boos from the studio audience.
“Stop! Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, no,” Goldberg quickly reacted while waving her finger. “No, no, no. No, no. No! No booing!”
Behar also chimed in, adding that “no Republican will ever come back here if you’re gonna boo” as Goldberg continued to lecture the audience.
“You know, we need to talk to people to find out what they’re thinking and are they thinking in the right way,” the Oscar-winning actress concluded. “He’s not going to be perfect. None of them are. At least give people the opportunity to say what’s going on.”
Goldberg scolding the View audience on decorum echoed a similar moment last fall when the longtime host shut down a chorus of climate activists who repeatedly heckled Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during an off-the-rails interview.
“Excuse me. Excuse me, ladies! Excuse us,” Goldberg yelled at the demonstrators. “Let us do our job. Let us do our job. We hear what you have to say, but you gotta go! You gotta go! You got to let us do our job!”
