Whoopi Goldberg Addresses Shouting Match With Jeanine Pirro

The two got in an on-air argument on Thursday's 'The View.'

Whoopi Goldberg is addressing Thursday's intense on-air argument between her and Judge Jeanine Pirro.

On Thursday's episode of The View, Goldberg and Pirro got into a heated exchange while discussing Pirro's latest book, Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy. Goldberg appeared to end the segment early and briefly apologized for losing her cool when the show returned from a commercial break. The co-host further explained the events in the opening moments of Friday's episode.

"Well, unless you were under a rock yesterday, you know all about Jeanine Pirro's appearance here on the show," Goldberg began. "Now things got hot on the air which you expect, that happens a lot, but I want to clear up what happened afterwards because she talked about it on Fox News last night and Fox & Friends this morning -- or The Five or whatever it is -- but she seemed to leave out some key points because, well, she left a lot of pertinent stuff out. And there were a lot of people backstage and I wanna be very clear about what happened. There is a lot of spinning she is doing and I can't do anything about that, but I can tell you what went on."

Goldberg said that Pirro "was upset" when she first arrived because Ana Navarro -- a CNN host -- was guest-hosting in Joy Behar's place. A source confirmed this fact, telling ET that Pirro was snapping at her team and producers backstage. The source also notes that Pirro was asking her team to deal with View producers regarding Navarro’s appearance on the show.

"After the segment, which ended when it was supposed to -- it was not early, was not late, it ended when it was supposed to -- she then called everybody at the table a name I cannot repeat on TV and said it in front of the audience," Goldberg revealed. "When I came offstage I went over there because I was a little hot, so I went to calm down."

Goldberg continued: "She came off, she could've just passed me, she didn't need to stop, but she stopped and put her finger in my face and said, 'I've done more for victims than you ever will.' Then I said to her some few choice words I cannot repeat. Yes, I did say it. I did say it. But I did not spit on her. I did not intimidate her. No one chased her out of here saying, 'Get out.'" 

The source confirmed these details to ET as well, revealing that Pirro said, “I knew it would be like this” before heading offstage, pointing her finger in Goldberg’s face and saying, “I’ve done more for abused women than you will ever do.” The two women then exchanged obscenities, the source adds.  

Goldberg continued her account of the events, saying, "But she did leave here cursing at the people who booked the show, she cursed at the guys who do the security for the show. I did say to her in the middle of all of this, 'You and I have never had a problem before.' And then I had to go back to work to finish the show, which should tell you none of us were chasing her because we still had another segment to do."

After praising The View's history of having guests with differing viewpoints -- she specifically mentioned Newt Gingrich, Corey Lewandowski, Charlotte Pence, Sarah Sanders, Trey Gowdy, Dana Perino and Jeb and Barbara Bush -- Goldberg had a final message for Pirro.

"Jeanine, good luck with your book. I hear it is number one," Goldberg said. "I preferred your last book about Robert Durst, but there's no accounting for taste. I like the book. I liked the last book."

Goldberg concluded her speech explaining what The View asks of its guests and, once again, apologizing for getting "stirred up." 

"You can come to this show. We treat everybody with respect, but you cannot come and call people names. You can't point at people and you can't do this to people," Goldberg said. "People who know Jeanine know exactly what I'm talking about. They know she likes to stir it up. I rarely get stirred up, but I got stirred up yesterday and I did apologize for getting hot. I said it doesn't happen often. Every 10 years it seems."

Here's more on the on-air argument:

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