Following a stern warning from “The View” alum Meghan McCain, the talk show’s current hosts held a somber discussion about the Charlie Kirk shooting.
Whoopi Goldberg said the shooting was “beyond devastating” on Thursday’s show — shortly after McCain took to X to write, “If my former colleagues at The View have even three brain cells left between all of them, they will do nothing but attempt to be even mildly decent this morning to the millions of heartbroken conservatives in this country.”
Though the ABC hosts didn’t address whether they’d seen the tweet, Goldberg told the audience, “Our hearts, of course, go out to the family of Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed yesterday on a college campus in Utah.”
Goldberg went on to question, “Isn’t it a fundamental part of being an American that we are able to express our opinions to each other without fear, without this kind of horror happening? And it seems to be something we are seeing more and more of.”
She continued, “It’s not even left or right, it’s just people being taken out because of their beliefs or their thoughts.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin expressed sympathy for Kirk’s wife, Erika, and their two young children following the shooting, which took place as the Turning Point USA co-founder was engaging with students at Utah Valley University about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.
“Listen, regardless of your politics, we have got to get to a place in this country where we see people we disagree with not as our enemy but as fellow Americans with different viewpoints we are willing to engage,” the talk show host said.
Sara Haines lamented, “The irony of a man who would go across the country to college campuses — and his series was called ‘Prove Me Wrong.’ He would talk to people openly who disagreed.”
Haines recalled Kirk’s own words, “When we stop talking, that’s when things get bad.” She added, “I know all of us agree on that part, there’s never a place for political violence.”
Griffin hoped the killing wouldn’t have “a chilling effect — whether you’re left or right — on your ability to speak your mind.”
Goldberg agreed, saying that she hopes “that young Republicans never forget that they have a voice.” Joy Behar recalled “scary times,” including the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Robert F. Kennedy in the 60s.
“We survived it and got better,” Behar said. “I think we will again. We’re having a traumatic period right now.”
Kirk, 31, died on Wednesday after a sniper shot rang out during the conservative activist’s first stop on his “American Comeback Tour” of college campuses.
The moment — which was widely disseminated via social media — saw the influential commentator slump over before being taken to a local hospital, where he died. The killer, who apparently shot Kirk from a nearby campus rooftop before fleeing the chaotic scene, is still at large.