On ABC’s “The View” on Wednesday, co-host Whoopi Goldberg criticized what she described as a breakdown in U.S. checks and balances during a discussion about the Trump administration’s weekend operation in Venezuela that led to the capture and transfer of Nicolás Maduro to U.S. custody. Goldberg also asked why U.S. allies were not intervening politically, citing NATO’s response after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Whoopi Goldberg, a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” criticized the state of U.S. governance during the show’s Wednesday broadcast, arguing that key institutional checks on presidential power were not functioning.
Her remarks came during a discussion of the Trump administration’s weekend actions in Venezuela. According to The Daily Wire’s account of the segment, the panel discussed the U.S. operation that resulted in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his transfer to the United States.
Goldberg asked why foreign allies were not coming to the United States’ aid politically, comparing the moment to how, in her words, NATO helped the U.S. after Sept. 11. In comments quoted by The Daily Wire, she said: “Where is everybody? Where is everybody else? We come to everybody’s aid. We help everybody. NATO, they came and helped us after 9/11. Where is everybody?”
The Daily Wire reported that co-host Sara Haines said Trump’s voters did not understand “the chess game of the geopolitics” and again described the administration’s actions as “illegal.” Goldberg agreed with that characterization and tied her criticism to what she described as a failure of checks and balances.
In a longer passage quoted by The Daily Wire, Goldberg said: “But where is the government? Do you realize we don’t have a government?! We don’t have a — and this is a huge, and should be, our biggest b*tch right now. That should be — because all of this is happening because no one is doing checks and balances.” She added: “Where is the government? Why aren’t they doing their job?”
Goldberg also referenced a recent remark by Trump about the 2026 midterm elections, saying he had “hinted” there might not be midterms before later saying he was joking. In early January 2026, multiple news outlets reported that Trump made comments that alluded to “canceling” the midterm elections in a way he later framed as sarcasm and media-baiting, rather than an actual proposal.
Maduro, who was taken into U.S. custody after the operation, appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Jan. 5, 2026, and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking-related charges, according to reporting by The Associated Press and Time. His lawyers have said they plan to challenge the legality of his capture and argue he is entitled to immunity, while the U.S. government does not recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state.
The White House has not responded in the cited segment to Goldberg’s comments. The broader debate over executive authority and the legality of U.S. actions abroad has intensified as the Maduro case moves through U.S. courts.
