Whoopi Goldberg backs Carrie Underwood inauguration performance
“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg on Tuesday backed country star Carrie Underwood’s upcoming performance at President-elect Trump’s inauguration.
“If I believe I have the right to make up my mind to go perform someplace, I believe they have the same right … I have to support,” Goldberg said on “The View.”
“[Doesn't] mean I'm particularly interested in what I won't be watching, you know? But that's me,” she added.
The comments about Underwood’s inauguration performance are notable coming from Goldberg, who is commonly a harsh critic of Trump.
Underwood is scheduled to perform “America the Beautiful” next Monday prior to Trump’s official swearing-in. In a statement to USA Today, the country music star said she has affection for “our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event.”
“I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future,” she added.
For Trump’s first presidential inauguration festivities eight years ago, he had a hard time attracting major celebrities amid criticism and concerns about how he would lead following a divisive 2016 campaign.
“It’s like Joe [Scarborough] and Mika [Brzezinski]. … They felt that’s what they needed to do, and I gotta stand behind ‘em,” Goldberg said of Underwood’s performance during Tuesday’s episode, referencing a meeting that the MSNBC co-hosts had with the president-elect in November.