News/Commentary

Riley Gaines responds to claim she took Whoopi to the cleaners for $8M

October 8, 2023 | | Print Article

A seven-figure claim connecting Whoopi Goldberg to Riley Gaines left the former NCAA swimmer reacting, “I would love for this to be true…”

Stretching the limits on what constitutes “satire” an article began circulating that suggested the young women’s rights advocate had not only filed a defamation suit against the co-host of ABC’s “The View,” but that she had taken her to the cleaners for $8 million.

Gaines herself reacted to the claim spread in a since-deleted post on X from citizen journalist Officer Lew that read, “BREAKING: Riley Gaines, who protested transgenders competing in women’s sports, has won an $8 million defamation suit against Whoopi Goldberg.”

“As much as I would love for this to be true,” the University of Kentucky graduate responded, “it’s simply not. Who makes this stuff up? …thanks for all the texts and messages anyways haha.”

A Community Notes message that was tacked onto another post sharing the story on X read, “No reputable news sources report that Riley Gaines won a defamation case against Goldberg. A satirical article on freerepublic.com titled ‘[Satire:] Judge awards Riley Gaines $8 million dollars in Whoopi Goldberg Defamation Case’ is being spread as fact.”

Image via X

After deleting the post, Officer Lew commented on Gaines’ correction and said, “Riley Gaines confirms this to not be true!! Source was from a site that was confirmed to be satirical in nature,” to which someone replied with a screenshot from the article, itself an excerpt from another, and commented, “Just takes a second to check before posting.”

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Word that the story, attributing quotes to Goldberg like, “She can’t swim…what kind of petulant child puts up two years’ worth of fights to solidify a 5th-place tie? Get a job,” wasn’t genuine disappointed many of the former college swimmer’s supporters who were pleased to believe that another scalp had been figuratively claimed in the culture war.’

“Aww I got so excited when I saw that,” came one reaction earning the response, “Saaaaame dang it.”

Another weighed in, “That’s too bad. Weird thing for someone to make up….”

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Others either participated in comically holding their hand out in hopes of taking a cut for Gaines or remarked that she had likely experienced that a lot before the story had been set straight.

“Girl can I get a few bucks. Lol. Stay strong and God Bless you for all you stand for,” came one musing.

“Bummer. I was hoping for a loan!” snarked another.

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Regardless of the fictitious nature of the report, supporters saw a victory for Gaines who, for standing up against the rainbow mob pushing alphabet activism into women’s spaces, was credited with “still winning the PR battle. Keep up the fight.”

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Gaines latest campaign has included a push to mark October 10th as “Real women’s day” with the Roman numeral depiction of the date “X/X” representing the immutable defining characteristic of women in their genetic makeup.

Kevin Haggerty
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