Whoopi Goldberg has come under fire for remarks she made in defense of Mel Gibson after several of his obscene, racially-charged rants leaked online.
"There has been a lot of hassle ... in the media recently about moi because I had the audacity to say that I had some personal time with Mel that goes over years and years and said that I did not think of him as a racist," Whoopi began on 'The View' today.
"If you had actually watched the show, you would have heard us say, and you would have heard me specifically say, 'I don't condone this. I don't think this is right, I don't think this is smart. But here's the piece of information that I have. My experience tells me that this is not a racist,'" she continued.
"Being a black woman, you'd think you would give me a little bit of leeway to have some feelings if I was around a racist."
"People called my office and went off on the young lady that works there. You're going to call because you think that I'm doing something wrong. And you do the same thing to this young lady that you don't even know that Mel Gibson supposedly did? Who are you?" she says, making a spitting noise. "You can kiss my behind."
On Monday, Whoopi explained her position on Mel. "I know Mel, and I know he's not a racist. I have had a long friendship with Mel. You can say he's being a bonehead, but I can't sit and say that he's a racist having spent time with him in my house with my kids. I don't like what he's done, make no mistake."
Goldberg also blamed his 2006 anti-Semitic tirade after being stopped by police on alcohol. "Drunks say stupid stuff to people all the time -- because they're drunk, they're out of control, they are not thinking, they are idiotic. I can't say anything about people like that because I know what they're like when they're drunk."
But her fellow hosts weren't as keen to forgive the actor. Joy Behar told The Insider that Mel is not welcome on 'The View.' "Barbara [Walters] would not allow him on the show."
"Barbara's Jewish, he's an anti-Semite, he's a racist ... so he's done," Behar added.
The fourth tape of Gibson yelling at his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva recently surfaced. In it, he makes demands for oral sex before threatening to burn the house down.
In the other tapes, he screams racial slurs, admits to hitting Oksana and calls her a slut
