The View Hosts Have a Field Day with Nicki Minaj's Vaccine Misinformation

It took three days, but The View co-hosts are finally reacting to Nicki Minaj's ridiculous claim that her cousin's friend's testicles became swollen after he received the COVID-19 vaccine. The panel had a field day Thursday morning with the story, which has dominated the news cycle with its many bizarre twists (the White House, Tucker Carlson, and the government of Trinidad and Tobago are now all involved, because of course they are). "This is not the woman you want to get your information from," cautioned Whoopi Goldberg. "She's a wonderful girl. She makes great music. I would not take any advice from her about getting a shot."

"I need you to follow me with this," said Goldberg, barely able to contain her delight, at the top of the segment. "Nicki Minaj's tweet that pushed a crazy, false claim about a cousin's friend's aunt's cousin's father's sister's aunt who experienced some kind of weird side effect from some vaccine — the story has gotten even weirder."

Goldberg explained that the story has drawn attention from both sides of the aisle: while the Biden administration has disputed Minaj's claim that she was invited to the White House to talk about the vaccine, Tucker Carlson offered to interview the rapper's cousin's friend about his balls. "Well, at least it got Tucker Carlson to defend a Black woman!" joked Ana Navarro, much to the audience and her co-hosts' delight. "You didn't see that one coming."

From that point, the co-hosts each took turns riffing on Minaj's claim, which Goldberg (correctly) insisted cannot possibly be true. "First of all, when somebody says their cousin's mother's aunt's sister's brother's uncle's dog, happened in another country," she said, "Our grandmothers, our great-grandmothers will always tell you a story about something that happened in another country to somebody they knew — and they knew everything. And you should avoid all of that."

"She says she wants to do further research," added Joy Behar. "I would like to do some into heart disease. Maybe I can become a surgeon? You never know."

NICKI MINAJ SPEAKS WITH THE WHITE HOUSE? After the rapper’s inaccurate tweet about the COVID-19 vaccine went viral, the White House offered to introduce her to one of the Biden administration’s doctors to address her questions about the vaccine – the co-hosts discuss. pic.twitter.com/t0kWttFLXr

— The View (@TheView) September 16, 2021

"When exactly is she going to start her research? We've known about this since the beginning of 2020. She didn't go to the Met Gala, so she had time the other night," said Sara Haines, earning a round of applause from the audience. "And I would recommend that she do her research before she go to 22.7 million Twitter followers and speak. We know we're living in a time when there's a misinformation campaign, and your story started out with your cousin's sister's fiance's brother. That's a huge red flag right there."

Sunny Hostin was happy to laugh her way through the segment, but she explained she was hesitant to chime in for fear of facing Minaj's wrath. "I don't want to say too much because one, I don't want Nicki Minaj coming after me. She is very active on Twitter," she said. "But I do want to follow up, in all seriousness — I don't want Nicki coming after me — but she does have 22 million followers, and with that kind of platform comes much responsibility."

"I would implore people that have great platforms to do your research and not spread any misinformation," continued Hostin. "And when you have people like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens and Laura Ingraham sticking up for you, you've got to think something is probably wrong."

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.