Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off The View on October 14, 2010, after guest Bill O’Reilly said, “Because Muslims killed us on 9/11,” while arguing against a proposed Muslim community center near the World Trade Center site. O’Reilly apologized on air, and the two hosts later returned to the set.
What sparked the walk-off?
The exchange was about Park51, a proposed Muslim community center in Manhattan near the World Trade Center site. O’Reilly argued that the project was inappropriate. When Joy Behar challenged his claim that most Americans opposed it and asked, “Where’s that poll?”, O’Reilly replied, “Because Muslims killed us on 9/11.” ABC’s contemporaneous account says the studio audience booed during the exchange. ABC News reported on the October 14, 2010 appearance.
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Behar and Whoopi Goldberg objected to the way O’Reilly’s wording spoke about Muslims as a whole. The proposed center was the subject of the debate; Muslims as a population were not responsible for the actions of the extremists who carried out the September 11 attacks.
Who left, and what happened next?
- Behar stood up and left the set first.
- Goldberg followed her off the set.
- O’Reilly apologized, saying, “If anyone felt that I was demeaning all Muslims, I apologize.”
- Barbara Walters criticized the departures, saying the panel should be able to discuss the subject without walking off. She also said, “You cannot take a whole religion and demean them.”
- Behar and Goldberg returned to the set after the apology, according to ABC7’s report.
What did Behar and Goldberg say afterward?
In an October 18 follow-up, Goldberg explained why she left: “I’m glad that I left. I’m glad I left because I had reached my threshold.” She also described O’Reilly as condescending and disrespectful. Behar said she had understood his remarks as “something I construe as hate speech, frankly,” objecting to language that lumped an entire group together. ABC News covered their follow-up comments.
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In a 2016 ABC News retrospective, Behar recalled O’Reilly making “sweeping generalizations about Muslims” and said it was uncomfortable to remain seated with him. That retrospective also reported O’Reilly later recalling that, as the two hosts left, he said, “This is great. This is great, maybe Elisabeth [Hasselbeck] can interview me the whole hour.” These are later recollections, not a complete contemporaneous transcript. ABC News revisited the incident in 2016.
What was the poll O’Reilly cited?
O’Reilly cited a figure of “70 percent of Americans” opposing the Park51 project, but the contemporaneous account says he did not identify the poll when Behar asked for its source. In the follow-up, he later identified a CNN poll from August. The ABC reports do not provide the poll’s wording, sample or methodology, so the 70 percent figure should be treated as O’Reilly’s claim, not as an independently verified finding.
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Why was O’Reilly on the show?
O’Reilly appeared as a guest while promoting his book Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama. That context explains the appearance; it does not change what happened during the Park51 discussion.
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