Joy Behar is facing backlash over a recent defamatory remark about Elon Musk, forcing the ABC host to issue a swift apology in an attempt to avoid legal action. Behar is the latest co-host of The View to find herself in hot water after making a controversial claim that Musk supported apartheid while living in his native South Africa.
She suggested that if not for the “great Nelson Mandela,” figures like Musk—whom she labeled as racists and bigots—might have continued to oppress the country’s Black majority for decades. Citing a claim that “Musk was pro-apartheid” while living abroad, Behar disclosed she “didn’t really know” if that was true but nonetheless felt compelled to say it anyway.
“He grew up in that time when apartheid was full-blown before the great Nelson Mandela fixed that. He was around at that time, maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. He might’ve been a young guy,” Behar said on Thursday’s program. “So, [he] has that mentality going on. He was pro-apartheid, as I understand it.” She then joked: “So don’t be suing me, okay Elon?”
Joy Behar has been forced to walk back her comment that Elon Musk was “pro-Apartheid” and admits she was literally just spewing nonsense she knew nothing about:
“I didn’t know if he was or wasn’t. Maybe, maybe he wasn’t. Don’t be suing me, OK, Elon?”
Should still sue her since… pic.twitter.com/hhmRdOnuUA
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 28, 2025
Behar’s atrocious remarks came after a commercial break and a previous segment where she said President Donald Trump could “take a nap” and let Musk, a “foreigner” and “enemy of the United States,” run the country. “They’re allowed to say any lie they want but we have to be strict,” Behar went on about Musk and the Trump administration. “That’s why this show’s important,” she declared.
“Now I’m getting some flack because I said that Musk was pro-apartheid. I don’t really know for sure if he was,” she said, according to the Daily Mail. Online critics rushed to paint Behar’s contrition as a classic non-apology. “If a person does NOT know something for certain or not, they should not go on blabbering about it & associate someone by name-then request that person doesn’t sue them,” one person wrote on X. “I wish someone would not just ask them to apologize for their lies and actually just sue the s*** out of them! How many times is this now?” another commented. “That was one of those, NonApology APOLOGIES,” a third wrote.
How uninformed and hypocritical is Joy Behar?
In this clip, she rambles about how Elon Musk is a foreign agent… then falsely claims he was pro-apartheid… then questions if he came here legally or not.
How has The View not been sued into oblivion yet?
pic.twitter.com/34tZWhEKhN— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) February 27, 2025