During an in-studio appearance Wednesday on ABC’s “The View,” President Joe Biden said that he is “at peace” with his decision to step aside from the 2024 presidential race and “pass the torch” to Vice President Kamala Harris.
This was the president’s tenth appearance on “The View,” who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. It is only the second time a sitting president has appeared on the program after former President Barack Obama visited the show in 2010.
Biden explained that because his administration was “having so much success in getting things done, and people thought we couldn’t get done, I found myself having used more time than I would have ordinarily to pass that torch.”
Biden exited the race in July and endorsed Harris, just one month shy of his party’s convention, amid growing calls for him to step down due to his age.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg expressed her disapproval of how the situation was handled, commenting that she didn’t like the “infighting” amongst the Democrats.
Biden was pressed by co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump administration official, for specific answers on his hostage release plans and a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, to which he responded that “part of the ceasefire would be the exchange of those hostages” and admitted that “all-out war is possible,” but he believes that “a settlement that fundamentally changes the whole region” can be reached.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly the previous day, Biden said he supports a two-state solution and urged all parties involved in the Gaza conflict to come make a deal.
Heaping praise on his deputy Harris, Biden said, “She is tough, she’s honorable. And the thing I like about her, and one thing we share in common, is that we have an optimistic view of the future.“
When asked what advice he had for Harris, his response was simple: “Be yourself.”
Not everyone in the media industry was pleased with the manner in which “The View’s” co-hosts conducted the interview. Some, like Nick Fondacaro, associate editor at the Media Research Center, felt the hosts failed to ask tough questions.
Speaking with NTD News, Fondacaro said the interview “was just them praising him the entire time. Really, no hard questions. Nothing about the failed withdrawal of Afghanistan. They didn’t really wanna talk about policy.”
Harris and former President Donald Trump are in an ever-tightening race to the White House. Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin polling site currently has Harris up by 2.7 percentage points nationally. RealClear currently has Harris up by 2.1 percent in their national average, which includes 3 percent for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has endorsed Trump.
The election is less than six weeks away, and early voting has already begun in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Vermont.