by Sharelle Burt

January 5, 2023

Whoopi Goldberg Jokes About Republican Kevin McCarthy’s Record Breaking House Speaker Loss

It was all jokes for the hosts of The View after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed six times in a row to secure enough votes to become House speaker, the first time in a century that this has happened.

Whoopi Goldberg introduced the topic, reminding the audience how McCarthy “definitely moved his stuff into the Speaker’s office way too soon” before losing the first three rounds on Tuesday. While the jokes were just getting started, Goldberg reminded everyone that it’s really no joking matter. “Congress can’t get anything done or swear anyone in until a speaker is chosen. And all the Democrats sitting around with popcorn, that’s not funny to us. This is serious business.”

Joy Behar had no problem watching the split within the Republican Party, telling her cohosts she felt “schadenfreude” watching the chaos. She compared the Republican Party to turtles. “I was reading one time about turtles, one time, and apparently if you have turtles in an aquarium and then you don’t feed them long enough, they will start to eat each other. Well, that’s what’s going on in Congress right now,” before quipping, “And I’m not just talking about Mitch McConnell when I talk about turtles here. I’m talking about all of them.”

Joining in the laughs, conservative host Alyssa Farah Griffin said she expected Behar’s “gloating” response but is also enjoying the party fall apart, saying “it’s a mess of Kevin McCarthy’s own making. Every step he has taken in the last however many years has been to be speaker, and that right is not going to budge and he needs to wake up.” Sunny Hostin stepped in to say that McCarthy feels “entitled,” saying he’s said to some conference members that  “he’s earned this.”

Sources call McCarthy’s attempts “desperate” after refusing to concede, despite overwhelming evidence that his party is not willing to support him. The House decided to take a break and reconvene after noon on Thursday. The View airs weekdays at 11/10 ET on ABC.


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