Whoopi Launches Tirade Against Karoline Leavitt After First White House Briefing

“The View” host Whoopi Goldberg ripped into White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday, scolding her for being critical of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies and suggested that without “wokeness,” she might not have a job in President Donald Trump’s administration.

“I would like — this young lady who’s — this is her first job, I would like her to do a little homework, because she said something yesterday that really pissed me off,” Goldberg began. “And that was, she said, ‘There will be no wokeness here.'”

“Let me explain something to you because without that wokeness, you might not have that job,” Goldberg continued. “Because women were not invited to that table. Women were not invited to many tables in this nation. The reason we fought and busted our behinds to make sure that you didn’t have to worry about this.”

Goldberg continued down that path, continuing to claim that Leavitt, 27, would not have her job without “wokeness.”

“The wokeness was put in place for a reason!” she said. “Please, please stop using that phrase to talk about it because you don’t understand what you’re saying!”

WATCH:

Whoopi, who tried to scare people to vote for Kamala by falsely claiming Trump was going to redistribute white spouses from interracial marriages, says she's worried that the expanded White House press pool will be "state-run news" and would "feel a lot better" if there were… pic.twitter.com/n45WxoJqUZ

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 29, 2025

Goldberg then pivoted to make the exact argument that President Trump and others within his administration have been making for doing away with DEI initiatives and moving instead towards merit-based systems.

“I will say this: I feel a lot better when I know there are standards people have to meet,” she said, and her cohosts agreed with her. “And so, you can bring in whoever you want, the truth will — the proof will be in the pudding. We can stand and say this is terrible, but so we’re going to wait and see what happens.”

Goldberg went on to suggest that the White House press pool in a Trump White House — despite the fact that it was not the case during his first administration — was likely to become “state-run” media.