A co-host of “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg, is being excoriated online after she claimed on the ABC News program that living under the oppression and violence of the Iranian regime is no different than being a Black person in America. 

Ms. Goldberg drew the comparison while she and fellow co-hosts argued over whether Israel was justified in preemptively striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. The discussion became explosive when a co-host, Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump White House communications director turned anti-Trump crusader, sought to remind the group of the Iranian regime’s atrocities. 

“Let’s remember too, the Iranians literally throw gay people off of buildings. They don’t adhere to basic human rights,” Ms. Griffin said. She was quickly cut off by Ms. Goldberg, who, shaking her head, told her fellow co-host, “Let’s not do that,” before arguing that America has “been known” to “tie gay folks to the car. I’m sorry, they used to just keep hanging Black people.” 

This launched a testy back-and-forth between Ms. Griffin, who is white, and Ms. Goldberg, who is Black. Ms. Griffin, growing visibly frustrated, pushed back against her co-host, saying that “the Iranian regime, today, in 2025, is nothing compared to the United States.” She noted that she would not be able to step into Iran with her hair showing or with her arms exposed.

“It is the same,” Ms. Goldberg interjected. “Murdering someone for their difference is not good whoever does it.” 

Ms. Griffin refused to concede, reiterating that living in America in 2025 is “very different” than living in Iran. To which Ms. Goldberg replied: “Not if you’re Black.” A fellow co-host, Sunny Hostin, who like Ms. Goldberg espouses far-left views, similarly responded, “Not for everybody.” 

Ms. Goldberg then went on to list the challenges that her community faces, adding that “we” — likely meaning fellow Black Americans — are worried everyday for their safety and the safety of their children. 

Ms. Griffin responded by assuring her co-host, “Nobody wants to diminish the very real problems we have in this country,” before adding, “It’s important to remember that there are places much darker than this country, and people who deserve rights.” 

Their back-and-forth continued for some time — with Ms. Goldberg at one point claiming that Black Americans were effectively prevented from voting until the mid-20th century, to which Ms. Griffin retorted that Iran doesn’t even have fair elections — until Ms. Goldberg shut the argument down by stating that there’s no way that she could make her fellow co-host “understand.” 

Clips of the exchange quickly went viral online, with viewers criticizing Ms. Goldberg for downplaying the brutality of the Iranian regime, a theocratic government that strictly enforces Shia law. 

A Middle East commentator, Hen Mazzig, whose parents were Jewish Tunisian and Iraqi refugees, called Ms. Goldberg’s take “disgusting” and chided the talk show host for “flippantly” dismissing “the horrors” of the Islamic regime. 

“The police are murdering women for not covering all of their hair. They are raping the people who protest the regime. They are refusing to let minority groups like the Kurds, Ahwazi, and Baloch learn about their histories,” Mr. Mazzig wrote. 

A conservative journalist, Kyle Becker, accused Ms. Goldberg of “gaslighting” her co-host, before noting that the American actress — who is an EGOT recipient, having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony — is a multimillionaire. “This sense of entitlement is not only tone-deaf, it’s gross,” he wrote. 

“The View,” which is produced by ABC News for the Disney-owned ABC Television Network, has been under an increasingly harsh spotlight for its New York City-based hosts’ hard-left positions, at odds with much of the country’s residents, and its hosts’ virulent dislike of Mr. Trump. The Daily Beast recently reported that ABC News executives met with “View” stars and suggested they tone down their anti-Trump rhetoric, and were rebuffed. 

Indeed, ABC News executives appear to have little control over the co-hosts of “The View.” Their acid rhetoric has become so barbed that during show broadcasts, which are often live, the hosts are forced to read “legal notes” clarifying or correcting false or defamatory statements they make about conservatives, in real time. During a single show in November, “The View” hosts had to read four legal notes after they trashed various Trump Cabinet picks.

Ms. Goldberg’s and Ms. Hostin’s refusal to compare Iran unfavorably to America comes as left-wing and LGBTQ activist groups have come out in support of the regime amid its conflict with Israel, despite Iran’s poor track record on most of the human rights issues that they aim to uphold. A far-left feminist organization, Code Pink, for example, has condemned Israel’s strikes on Iran, branding them “a brazen attempt to attack the only state that has stood against the zionist entity and undermine sovereignty in the region.” 

Same-sex relations are forbidden in Iran and, in recent years, men have been executed for sodomy. Code Pink’s stand prompted one commentator to remark: “CODEPINK — a so-called ‘feminist’ group, proudly backs a regime that kills and imprisons women for showing their hair. Let that hypocrisy marinate.”