Joe Biden Tells ‘The View’ That He Is “At Peace” With His Decision To Step Aside But Believes He Still Would Have Beat Donald Trump
Joe Biden said in an appearance on The View that he was “at peace” with his decision to drop out of the presidential race, even as the hosts questioned him on the pressure he faced within his own party to exit.
“I loved it — it sounds corny, but I loved my country more,” Biden said.
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His appearance — the first live in studio visit to the show by a sitting president — felt a bit of a valedictory, as the president sat with the co-hosts against a backdrop of photos from his 50-year career, and clips of his past appearances on the show were shown before commercial breaks.
That said, co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin asked him, “We all agree at this table that it was very selfless of you to pass the baton and step aside. There was a perception that perhaps your hand was forced, and some pointed fingers to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who you have a long relationship and accomplished many things with. Did you feel your hand was forced and what is your relationship with Nancy Pelosi now?”
Biden gave a terse, “My relationship is fine.”
“Look, I never fully believed the assertions that somehow there was this overwhelming reluctance of my running again,” he said. I didn’t sense that. “And although — they said Biden’s polling was different. The fact of the matter is, my polling was … always within range of being this guy. … It makes sense. There were some folks who would like to see me step aside so they have a chance to move on. I get that. That’s just human nature. But that wasn’t the reason that I stepped down. I stepped down because I started thinking about it.”
He told Farah Griffin, “I know you’re only 30, but it’s … hard for me to even say how old I am. I’m serious. I give my word. It’s like, ‘holy God, that can’t be right. This can’t be right.'”
Joy Behar then interjected, “By the way, the number gives me vertigo.” She and Biden are the same age — 81.
Biden said, “No woman close to me is as old as I am. None.”
Whoopi Goldberg then quipped, “Right now they are.”
Biden said that he thinks that he still would have won had he stayed in the race. “I was confident I would beat Trump,” Biden said.
Goldberg told Biden that she disagreed with the pressure campaign to get Biden to drop out. “I didn’t like the way it was done publicly. I thought they could have done this in a different way, because we didn’t need to hear all the inner fight. I didn’t like it.”
She added to Biden, “You were my ride or die. I was going wherever you were going. I just wanted to say that because I always felt you were probably going to do four years and then try to figure it out where to go with Kamala.” Referring to Trump, Goldberg said, “Then he just wouldn’t go. He was like a bug. He just kept being there.”
Overall, Biden’s sitdown on The View was very friendly territory. Some of the co-hosts have endorsed Kamala Harris, and Ana Navarro even served as a host of one evening of the Democratic National Convention.
Biden praised his vice president several times, saying, “She is bright. She is tough. She is honorable.”
“There wasn’t a single thing that I did that she couldn’t do,” he said.
Behar asked about Trump’s claim that Biden’s rhetoric is to blame for two assassination attempts against him.
“After all the calls for violence … don’t you think that is just unbelievable, and what do you say to that?”
In a bit of understatement, Biden said, “I think he is the most unusual president.”
“Trump is,” Biden said, pausing for a bit, “there’s not a lot of social redeeming value there. He really does not believe in democracy and the guardrails that our system has set up for the abuse of power.”
He called Trumps actions on January 6, 2021 “bizarre,” while warning that “NATO ends” is Trump is elected back into the White House.
“He fails to understand the value of partners, the value of alliances, the value of bringing the world together,” Biden said.
“I don’t think he even understands what he is doing,” he said.
Reflecting on how he would like to be remembered, Biden said it would be for “being honest in what I have done, straight up. I think I used to drive Barack crazy [during his presidency]. Every morning we would meet at 9 o’clock for eight years, and then we would end the day together. And I would say to him, Barack, remember, ‘All politics is personal,’ including international. You build relationships. It matters to build trust.”
When asked whether an all out war was a real possibility in the Middle East, Biden tried to focus on the “opportunity” for a peaceful settlement.
“An all out war is possible, but I think there’s also the opportunity, we’re still in play, to have a settlement that could fundamentally change the whole region.”
Biden noted that Israeli’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a picture he signed for him when he was “a young member of the embassy here in the United States.”
Biden said that he signed the 8×10, “Bibi, I love you, but I don’t agree with a damn thing you say or do, Joe.”
“I do, and it’s right. I don’t agree with his position. There needs to be a two-state solution — ultimately it needs to happen. There’s a way to do it and they have a possibility. I don’t want to exaggerate it, but a possibility if we can deal with a ceasefire in Lebanon. That it can move into dealing with the West Bank. But we also have Gaza to deal with.”
“It’s possible, and I’m using every bit of energy I have with my team … to get this done.”
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