Big whoop.
Whoopi Goldberg is weighing in on the controversy around Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, after his widely condemned commencement speech.
“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,” Goldberg said on Thursday’s episode of “The View.”
“I don’t have to believe them, I don’t have to accept them, the ladies that were sitting in that audience don’t have to accept them,” she added.
“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.”
Goldberg was referring to Butker’s commencement speech at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., on Saturday, May 11.
During his address, the 28-year-old NFL player railed against working women, Pride Month, abortion and other issues during his 20-minute address, leading to swift backlash on social media.
“It is safe to say that over the years, I have gained quite the reputation for speaking my mind,” the NFL player acknowledged before attacking “dangerous gender ideologies” and President Biden’s “bad policies and poor leadership.”
“Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder,” he continued.
Butker referred to Pride Month as an example of “the deadly sins” taught in church, complaining to graduates of the private Catholic college in Atchison, Kan., that queer people have an “entire month dedicated” to their rights.
The athlete, whose mother is an accomplished physicist, then addressed the women in the audience, telling them that their “most important title” should be “homemaker.”
“Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world,” he said. “I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
As for the school’s male graduates, Butker urged them to “be unapologetic in your masculinity” and “fight against the cultural emasculation of men.”
Butker, who is teammates with Travis Kelce, also quoted Taylor Swift.
“As my teammate’s girlfriend says, ‘Familiarity breeds contempt,’” he said.
He was met with backlash on social media.
“Harrison Butker doesn’t represent Kansas City nor has he ever. Kansas City has always been a place that welcomes, affirms, and embraces our LGBTQ+ community members,” former county commissioner Justice Horn wrote on X.
Maria Shriver told him to learn “dignity and respect.”
“As a woman who has leaned into my vocation of living a meaningful life inside and outside the home to not only raise good humans but also raise up our country in various ways, I think it’s demeaning to women to imply that their choices outside of wife and motherhood pale in comparison to that of a homemaker,” the journalist began a lengthy statement shared on X Wednesday.
On the other hand, Kaepernick took to kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police killings of African Americans.
Goldberg’s “The View” co-hosts didn’t agree with her.
“I think he has mother issues,” Joy Behar said about Butker, noting that his mother is a physicist, and not a homemaker.
“He refers to Taylor Swift as his teammate’s girlfriend, another hugely accomplished woman he has huge disdain for because of mommy. So, get a therapist!”
“I have this huge issue with this tradwife homemaker thing,” Alyssa Farah Griffin said. “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!”
Goldberg still defended Butker, saying that the athlete “has the right to say it” publicly.
“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.
