Whoopi Goldberg defends Michelle Obama skipping Donald Trump inauguration

The Whoopi Goldberg War Room™ has taken up arms in defense of a fellow entity of utmost importance on the global stage: Michelle Obama’s right to refuse attendance to Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The View moderator, EGOT-winning actress, and commander of the War Room™ announced defensive maneuvers in the wake of the former First Lady opening up on her latest IMO podcast episode about her decision to not attend Trump’s second presidential inauguration in January.

As Goldberg presented the Hot Topic to audiences Thursday morning, she stressed that the choice was “her decision,” and that no one else needed to know anything more about it.

“Why does she owe anybody an explanation?” the 69-year-old asked, while panelist Joy Behar said that there were “rumors she was having trouble with her marriage” to President Barack Obama (who still attended the inauguration), and that Michelle was simply “clearing it up” in response.

Goldberg lamented the fact that “this is the fourth time she’s had to do this,” telling the audience that she doesn’t “understand why if she says she didn’t go, why do I have to know?”

Legal expert Sunny Hostin said that “women are always expected to say yes and do things when they don’t want to do them,” and that she’s learned to decline to do certain things now, in her fifties, with more ease than she did when she was younger.

“I say no when I don’t want to do anything, and it comes with wisdom and time and freedom,” Hostin said.

“Why would you go somewhere and be uncomfortable? I don’t want to be uncomfortable,” Goldberg added. “I don’t do it because it’s not good for me.”

Goldberg then set her sights on current First Lady Melania Trump.

“When Melania doesn’t go anywhere, people don’t flip out the way they’ve been flipping out” over Michelle, Goldberg observed. “We joke about it, but she’s not obligated to explain why she doesn’t go.”

Sara Haines added that “the obligations are different and probably should be different” when “you’re the acting First Lady,” but, she said, “when you’re out of office, you are out of office” and are no longer bound to a set of expectations.

“She was not obligated to go to this,” Goldberg stressed. “It’s important that we recognize that, not just women, but just as human beings, we’re not obligated to do those things that are harmful to us or do not help us go forward.”

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On the IMO podcast, Michelle explained that she felt a duty to protect her own peace in not attending the event.

“I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me. It took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right or perceived as right, but do the thing that was right for me,” she said. “That was a hard thing for me to do. I had to basically trick myself out of it, and its started with not having anything to wear. If I’m not going to do this thing, I’ve got to tell my team, ‘I don’t even want to have a dress ready.'”

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.