Whoopi Goldberg, ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Reject ‘Innocent Until Proven Guilty’ … for Donald Trump

The legal principle of presumption of innocence goes back at least to the 6th-century Eastern Roman Empire. In his “Digest,” Emperor Justinian I described the principle of Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat, or “Proof lies on him who asserts, not on him who denies.” The United Nations 1948 “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” states in Article 11:

Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.

And, of course, the principle is enshrined in the United States Constitution, in the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments.

That’s almost two millennia of the legal principle of “innocent until proven guilty.” It’s a fundamental, defining principle of civilized people.

That is, unless you’re Whoopi Goldberg, and talking about former President Donald Trump and the.

.@TheView‘s Whoopi Goldberg to @realDonaldTrump: ‘If you didn’t do it, why are you in the court?’ https://t.co/fewalR6IEb

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 8, 2024

Whoopi’s colleagues on “The View” appear to agree.

“It’s about the fact that they paid her as a cover-up and then they used, sort of — they pretended it was a business expense and it was over the campaign contribution amount,” co-host Sunny Hostin explained on Wednesday.

She continued, “It’s actually campaign finance fraud, but since he denied having sex with her, the prosecution now has to put her up on the witness stand to explain that they did have sex, that she was paid off, and that she was paid off so that it would not affect his campaign.”

It’s not a “fact” or anything of the sort; that’s why we have trials, to determine the facts–and that is anything but certain at this point. But Whoopi had to double down on stupid:

“It seems if they’re building this case that shows all of the stuff that he’s done, it’s kind of a real case to say, OK, you shouldn’t be president, because these are — it’s not just — we’re talking about one thing at a time,” Whoopi Goldberg said. “But I think what they’ve managed to do that they hadn’t managed to do anywhere else is build this sort of arc of lies.”

Hostin jumped in, “A pattern.”

“Well, you know what he says. He always says he didn’t do it. You know, I just think if you didn’t do it, why are you in the court?” Goldberg asked.

It’s difficult for persons of normal temperament, people who aren’t utterly consumed with hate, to understand how vile these people are.

Here at RedState, I and many of my colleagues have repeatedly pointed out the principle of presumption of innocence even when a political opponent is in the dock.

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And that’s as it should be. Rights are not conditional to one’s political leanings; even the worst radical commie or the most wild-eyed Islamic fundamentalist is entitled to this presumption of innocence in our legal system. This is the major difference between right and left. The right is more as “you have the right to do anything you like, as long as you’re not causing physical or financial harm to anyone else,” while the left is all about “you have the right to choose as long as we approve of your choices.” That’s not true in every case, but it’s a good place to start. In this case, Goldberg plainly thinks that this fundamental legal principle, this part of the bedrock on which civilization rests, only applies to people she approves of.

That’s a horrifying thought. Think about it; if Whoopi Goldberg is willing to chuck almost 2,000 years of legal principle because of Orange Man Bad, then what other reasons might she find for denying fundamental rights? Fortunately, she cannot influence actual policy in any way; she is purely a windbag bloviating on a far-left network with literally dozens of viewers and, after all, she enjoys the same First Amendment rights as the rest of us. That’s an unalloyed good; the best thing we can do with Whoopi is let her run wild, as she condemns herself with every utterance.

But there are others out there who think along these far-left lines, and some of them are in Congress.

Rights apply to everyone, equally, or they apply to no one. Whoopi Goldberg and her fellow Democrats are clueless as to the dangers of what she is espousing here. But then, we could leave everything after “clueless” in that sentence, and it would still be accurate.

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