The View Co-Hosts Call for President Biden to ‘Step Down and Be Replaced If We Want to Defeat Donald Trump’

The morning after President Joe Biden faced off against former President Donald Trump in the first of two televised presidential debates, the ladies of The View convened to share their reactions — and the mood at the table was sobering.

“It was really hard to watch,” Sara Haines said. “It pains me to say this today, but I think President Biden needs to step down and be replaced if we want to defeat Donald Trump in November.” Haines suggested that the Democratic Party “pushed for an earlier debate so they have time to change course if needed,” adding that his poor performance cannot — and should not — be explained away.

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“Democrats need to stop spinning the age problem,” she continued. “A lot of people are concerned with his age. Over and over, Democrats have twisted themselves into a pretzel [saying that his age doesn’t matter]. Even at this table, we’ve said, ‘Look, Joy is 81!’ But Joy Behar at 81 is not Joe Biden at 81, and that was on full display last night.” (As you can imagine, Behar was thrilled to have her age become part of the discussion.)

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who contributed to CNN’s debate coverage on Thursday night, said she was “genuinely shocked” by Biden’s performance, admitting that it was “stunningly worse than I expected.” She clarified that “Donald Trump was a mess” and “lied his way through,” but she feels that “Biden’s performance was so bad, it eclipsed everything [he] said.”

Griffin also echoed Haines’ concerns about Biden remaining the party’s nominee, saying, “We need someone who can beat him. … He needs to put country before his own ambitions and step aside.” Griffin, who served as Director of Strategic Communications while Trump was in office, claimed that the Republican Party “knows that any other Democrat will wipe the floor with Donald Trump. If it’s Trump versus Biden, Trump is going to win.”

Sunny Hostin agreed that “Biden lost that debate” and conceded that “maybe he needs to go. Maybe he needs to be honest with himself and the American people. He can bow out with grace and dignity. He has a record that he can be proud of.” However, she also noted that “it’s ironic that [Democrats] are the only party talking about replacing our nominee.”

In fact, the only co-host who even came close to saying that Biden should remain the Democratic nominee was Ana Navarro, who has known Biden for more than two decades.

“I’ve never seen Joe Biden like I saw him last night,” Navarro said. “It was worrisome. But until Joe Biden tells me he’s giving up, I’m not giving up on Joe Biden. He looked elderly, he sounded elderly, he is elderly, but the choice is no different — it’s a very old man versus a very bad man.”

Calling Trump a “machine gun of lies,” Navarro added, “I’m not going to judge Joe Biden on 90 bad minutes. I’m going to judge [him] on his lifetime career of putting this country first, putting you first and putting women’s rights first.”

As far as which politician could potentially replace Biden, the co-hosts brought up names like California Governor Gavin Newsom, though Behar questioned whether conservative voters would find him “too liberal,” and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, though Hostin admitted, “I don’t know if this country is ready for a gay president.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was also mentioned with no objections.

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