Whoopi Goldberg Shockingly Defends Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker's Controversial Commencement Speech: We All 'Have Our Opinions'

Whoopi Goldberg took a surprising stance regarding Harrison Butker 's recent controversial remarks.

On the Thursday, May 16, episode of The View , the famed panelist shockingly defended the Kansas City Chiefs kicker's comments encouraging all women to become "homemaker[s]," claiming Butker's speech expressed "his beliefs and he's welcome to them."

While many football fans are demanding Butker lose his job because of the hurtful words said in his commencement speech at Benedictine college on May 11, Goldberg felt otherwise, claiming he shouldn't be fired for being a "staunch Catholic."

"The NFL released a statement that he gave this speech in his personal capacity and... the NFL does not share his views. So, you know, listen, I like when people say what they say," she said while discussing the controversy on the long-running talk show.

"I don't have to believe them, I don't have to accept them, the ladies in the audience do not have to accept them. The same way we want respect when Colin Kaepernick takes a knee, we want to give respect to people whose ideas are different from ours," the 68-year-old explained before shading Donald Trump .

She said: "Because the man who says he wants to be President, you-know-who, he says the way to act is take away people's right to say how they feel. We don't want to be that, we don't want to be those people."

"So I'm OK with him saying whatever he says and the women who were sitting there, if they take his advice, good for them, they'll be happy. If they don't, good for them, they'll be happy in a different way — that's my attitude," Goldberg noted.

The Sister Act star's co-host Sara Haines , 46, chimed in, informing Goldberg, "I agree with you and I disagree with you," to which The Color Purple actress declared: "That's OK."

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"I don't want people shut down or fired for things they're willing to say. I will break with you on the comparison to Colin Kaepernick for this reason: Colin Kaepernick was standing up for the rights of many and saying in a social justice moment, 'This is a reminder that we're not there yet,'" Haines detailed. "What this man is doing is not just a devout Catholic, this is someone who is practicing something called the Traditional Latin Mass, which is a divergent of the majority of Catholics."

"It's compared to being cult-like and extremist, like some religions in the Middle East and Asia," Haines mentioned. "So this is a very extreme religion and what bothers me about that — as a Christian — is that when people abuse Christianity, they often not only cherry-pick from the Bible, they misinterpret and lie by omission, by taking out parts that would have explained something a little better."

The View panelist Sunny Hostin also jumped into the conversation, admitting that while she was "really saddened by what he said, the most hateful speech is the most protected speech and that's in our constitution, and so I am OK... he had the right to say it."