Whoopi Goldberg Rips Uvalde Shooting Video Leak: 'Shame on You'

Whoopi Goldberg slammed the newspaper that leaked an 82-minute video of surveillance footage of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which took place on May 24.

The Austin American Statesman recently released the lengthy video on its YouTube Channel, which shows multiple angles from the school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers. The video also shows 77 minutes where authorities were in the hallways of the school with the shooter, prompting outrage from those who see it as a slow police response.

On ABC's The View on Wednesday, Goldberg said that the newspaper "should be ashamed" of itself.

"This story really, really makes me insane," Goldberg said, saying that the parents of the victims are "outraged," while the paper has continued to defend its decision to leak the footage. "I find it indefensible. I'm sorry. You forgot that attached to all those sounds are people's children."

"They were going to see this video on Sunday. You did not have to release this and leak it," Goldberg continued. "I think it's appalling, and you should be ashamed of yourselves for doing that. For being thoughtless about the parents who have to relive this every day because it's on television."

"I don't know if you guys over at that newspaper have kids, but shame on you. I know it doesn't mean anything coming from me, but—" Goldberg said before she spat on the ground. "Shame on you."

Others have condemned the leaked footage, including Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who said on Tuesday during a city council meeting, "I want to go on the record. The way that video was released today was one of the most chicken things I've ever seen."

"There's no reason for the families to see that. I mean, they were going to see the video, but they didn't need to see the gunman coming in and hear the gunshots. They don't need to relive that, they've been through enough," McLaughlin said.

The paper has stood strong in its reasoning for publishing the footage, however. Newsweek was directed by the Austin American Statesman to a column that was published, titled, "Why the Austin American-Statesman chose to publish video from inside Robb Elementary."

After explaining several instances in which the video was edited due to its graphic nature, the statement read, "Our goal is to continue to bring to light what happened at Robb Elementary, which the families and friends of the Uvalde victims have long been asking for."

The Uvalde Police Department has received criticism since May for taking over an hour to stop the shooter, and the video has reignited significant backlash, as it shows officers stopping for hand sanitizer and checking their phones while the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, locked himself in a classroom.

"It's crazy to watch this shooting footage in Uvalde and to actually see responding officers doing literally nothing," Twitter user @polishXcellence wrote in a tweet. "I thought that maybe a little nuance was shed during reports, but no, they are straight up doing less than an average, untrained person would."

Update 7/13/22, 5:10 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include a response from the Austin American Statesman.