On Tuesday's The View on ABC, the group criticized death threats made against actor Brad Pitt's conservative mother after she wrote a letter to the editor of the Springfield News-Leader in Missouri defending Mitt Romney and asking people not to vote for President Obama, citing her religious objections to abortion and same-sex marriage.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg introduced the topic:
(Video can be found here.)
Brad Pitt's mom, Jane, wrote a letter to the editor claiming Christians shouldn't vote for President Obama because he supports gay marriage and abortion rights. And apparently now she is in fear over the outraged, hate-filled messages and death threats that she's been getting.
She continued:
I mean, when did it shift so much that we can't disagree with somebody without theatening them? I mean, you know, the little kids that made that stupid error of bullying the lady on the bus. They got death threats. I mean, this is now the new thing. Someone displeases you and you threaten them with death within an hour.
Below is a transcript of a portion of the segment from the Tuesday, July 10, The View on ABC:
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Brad Pitt's mom, Jane, wrote a letter to the editor claiming Christians shouldn't vote for President Obama because he supports gay marriage and abortion rights. And apparently now she is in fear over the outraged, hate-filled messages and death threats that she's been getting.
I mean, when did it shift so much that we can't disagree with somebody without theatening them? I mean, you know, the little kids that made that stupid error of bullying the lady on the bus. They got death threats. I mean, this is now the new thing. Someone displeases you and you threaten them with death within an hour.
JOY BEHAR: I think it's a lack of creativity on the part of the person who's upset. They don't know what else to say. That's why they say you're fat, things like that, when they're mad at you.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Like you're fat and kill you?
BARBARA WALTERS: This is violence. This is violence.
BEHAR: Yeah, but they're not going to actually do anything. They're just gonna-
GOLDBERG: You don't know that because it's always anonymous.
(...)
HASSELBECK: But what are we teaching the kids, right? Because they have access to all the things that we have access to. So they're seeing the reaction of adults in terms of the death threats, that someone can't express themselves, you know, this is a woman who is expressing her religion, whether you agree with her or not, but I think she's entitled to that, and she's not trying to hurt anybody.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: And, you know, Brad came out - because don't mess with nobody's mama - Brad came out and he was like, "This is my mom, my mother is a great woman," you know-
GOLDBERG: He should not have to come out and have to defend her. She's a grown woman, but I don't understand. This is still America. The America that we grew up in said that we could have disagreements and still be able to hang out. I don't know who y'all are that get crazy and write this stuff. Please stop it.
