Whoopi Goldberg destroys Republican congressman’s argument against same-sex marriage bill

Whoopi Goldberg took no prisoners in a response to congressman Jim Jordan’s argument against a same-sex marriage bill.

During Wednesday’s (20 July) instalment of daytime talk show The View, Whoopi Goldberg addressed remarks by Republican Jim Jordan on a new bill which aims to protect same-sex and interracial marriage.

The Respect for Marriage Act, which has passed in the House and now awaits a Senate, aims to protect marriage equality in anticipation of potential rollbacks by the Supreme Court.

However, Jordan called the bill “the latest instalment of the Democrats’ campaign to delegitimise and intimidate the United States Supreme Court”.

“Democrats can’t run on their disastrous record,” he said during a debate. “They can’t run on any accomplishments less than four months before an election, and all Democrats can do is stoke unfounded fears.”

Goldberg didn’t take this sitting down.

Addressing Jordan directly, she said: “I know you don’t really pay attention to much, but I will say that what the Democrats seem to be running on is also protecting everyone’s rights regardless of whoever you love.

“They’re trying to make sure that the rights you are so easily able to give away, we’re trying to hold on and say, actually, you can’t do that.

“Especially for a lot of folks who are also married interracially, which is coming up bobbing its ugly head around.”

Democratic representative David Cicilline said during the same congressional debate that he feared his husband could lose hospital visiting privileges if marriage equality was overturned, something The View host Joy Behar empathised with.

“He’s saying that if his husband’s in the hospital he can’t go in,” Behar said.

“That is the reason I got married, and I’m a heterosexual, I’m married to a man. People say: ‘Why’d you get married? You’ve been together 30, 40 some-odd years.’

“Well, because a gay person in my family was in the hospital and her girlfriend could not make a decision for her, and I saw that and I said: ‘I can’t let that happen to me.’”

There have been fears marriage equality could be overturned ever since the Supreme Court’s nullification of Roe v Wade.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion that the Roe decision gives the court an opportunity to “reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedent.”

One of the rulings that Thomas noted was the 2015 Obergefell v Hodges case which established a federal right to same-sex marriage, as well as rulings that legalised contraceptives and another that ruled “sodomy” bans as unconstitutional.

Goldberg has previously hit back at Thomas, who is in married to a wife woman, saying: “You better hope that they don’t come for you, Clarence, and say: ‘You should not be married to your wife.’”

The Respect for Marriage Act would repeal a declaration made by the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman – which would come back into effect if Obergefell was overturned –  as well as providing further protections for interracial couples.

The House passed the bill by a vote of 267 to 157 on Tuesday (19 July), with a surprising 47 Republicans voting for the law. all 157 representatives to vote against the bill were Republicans.

It was expected to be stalled or fully blocked by Republicans in The Senate. However, after four senate Republicans backed the bill, there might be a slim chance it could pass towards becoming a fully instated law. According to Reuters, Republican senators Susan Collins, Rob Portman, Lisa Murkowski, and Tom Tillis have all said they support the bill.

Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer changed his opinion of the bill in the space of 24 hours.

Having initially declined to weigh in on it, he eventually said he would work to get the required 10 Republican votes needed to pass it into law.

Some, like senator Mitch McConnell, have delayed their consideration of the bill, with McConnell waiting to “see what the majority leader wants to put on the floor”.