WHOOPI SMOLLETT: Staten Island bakery owner blasts Whoopi Goldberg over claim she was refused service over politics

A famous New York bakery on Staten Island set the record straight on Friday after actress Whoopi Goldberg falsely claimed that the establishment denied her service due to her political beliefs. The owner of Holtermann's Bakery vehemently denied the allegations, explaining that her order had been delayed because of equipment malfunctions.

Republican and Democratic city lawmakers stood behind the bakery during a Friday press conference, denouncing Goldberg for trying to destroy a family business that has been serving the community for the past 145 years. The bakery's 60-plus-year-old boiler had to be replaced in early November, which officials confirmed during the briefing.

"I am so overwhelmed by the support. Between finding out yesterday that this even happened, getting phone calls, and then people coming in - people from all over just supporting us in every way - we had phone calls yesterday from Alabama," bakery owner Jill Holtermann said during the brief, adding, "I just know how hard my family has worked to keep this business alive."

Vito Fossella, the Republican Staten Island Borough President, saying that Goldberg should apologize for her false accusations: "The bakery has had to endure something that they shouldn't have had to endure. The sacrifices they've made, the holidays they've missed with their families."

"To make Staten Island better, they have sacrificed for 145 years...They're still here, they're still strong, and they're not going anywhere despite what people on television have to say. And frankly, the people who defamed the Holtermann family should apologize to the Holtermann family for making stuff up to suit their needs," he continued. "Not everybody wakes up every day and thinks about politics. A good businessperson doesn't care about anybody's politics."

Goldberg claimed to her ABC co-hosts this week on the view that the bakery refused to fill her order for Charlotte Russe pastries because of her political views.

"The place that made these refused to make them for me," Goldberg said. "They said that their ovens had gone down, all kinds of stuff, but folks went and got them anyway, which is why I'm not telling you who made them. It can't be because I'm a woman, but perhaps, they did not like my politics."