On Thursday, as Townhall has been covering, former Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden appeared on "The View." Such a joint appearance was as predictable and disastrous as you'd expect. That Biden actually believes he could have beaten his predecessor/successor President Donald Trump in a rematch is just one of many signs he's not all there. His wife herself provided another reason for that.
Much has been made about Biden's answer, or lack there of, about his decline while speaking to the ladies of "The View," who could hardly be more pro-Biden and anti-Trump if they tried to be. That's what made Ana Navarro's appearance on CNN that same day even more laughable. It wasn't just the former president's answers that stood out, but the former first lady's answers as well.
Co-host Alyssa Farah brought up the books that are coming out and have come out about Biden's decline, as he sat there looking down and awkwardly smiling. She specifically mentioned "a dramatic decline" in his "final year" of his presidency, though the decline was seen even before that. "They are wrong," Biden responded, which was an answer to Farah's question at least, though he then went on an unrelated rant. He even claimed that "there's nothing to sustain that."
"You know, think of what uh, what we left with. We left with the circumstance where we uh, we had an insurrection when I started, not [seen] since the Civil War." Regardless as to if the events of January 6, 2021 actually constituted an insurrection, that was at the end of Trump's first term, still two weeks before Biden took office for his term. While he's compared January 6 to the Civil War before, hearing this line from Biden never gets tiring.
Biden also criticized the first Trump administration's handling of the COVID pandemic, though more people died under his term than Trump's first term. That was all he had of substance, though, if one could even call that substance. Even still, the ladies at the table could be heard murmuring along.
"We're also in a situation where we found ourselves, uh, unable to, uh, deal with a lot of just basic issues, which I won't go into for the interest of time. And so we went to work and we got it done," he claimed, right before his wife swooped in, before he could even finish his full thought, rambling though it was. It's highly debatable at best that the Biden-Harris administration "got it done" on anything, given how Biden finished his term as a particularly unpopular president and the American people once more elected Trump over the Democrats' replacement candidate, then Vice President Kamala Harris.
Jill Biden stepped in to point out that "the people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us, and they didn't see how hard Joe worked every single day." The former president looked at her while she spoke, at first, though he quickly looked down, looking lost for a few moments, as his wife went on to ramble on some more about completely unbelievable claims. It's also worth reminding that those books did rely on those who were close with Biden when he was president.
"I mean, he'd get up, he put in a full day, and then at night he would, I'd be in bed, you know, reading my book, and he was still, on the phone, reading his briefings, um, working with staff. I mean, it was nonstop. It's the White House. Being president is not like a job. It's a lifestyle. It's a life that you live. You live it 24 hours a day. That phone can ring at 11 o'clock at night or two in the morning. It's constant. You never leave it. And Joe worked really hard, I think he was a great president," Jill Biden continued to say about her husband, who was one of the least accessible and least transparent presidents we've ever had. Even while she praised him, Biden still looked down, his arms crossed. The audience then dutifully erupted in applause as the former first lady claimed that "if you look at things today, if you look at things today, give me Joe Biden any time!" It was then that Biden seemed to finally become aware of himself and where he was, as he looked up to quip, "that's worth the invitation to come to the show."
While "The View" may be one of the most anti-Trump and pro-Democrat programs out there, such fluff and such a reaction was ridiculous even for this show. And again, Biden's approval ratings as he finished his term, as well as how Americans believe he'll be remembered negatively, along with Republicans winning so handily last November, begs to differ.
🚨BRUTAL: Joe Biden gets asked about the reporting that has detailed his devastating cognitive decline — His answer was NOT GOOD.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 8, 2025
Jill had to step in! pic.twitter.com/Ozq9vQaMux
Matt offered some thoughts in his piece from Thursday not long after the episode aired, including when it comes to Jill Biden:
...Biden couldn’t answer a simple question about his mental state, which was brutal and riddled with lies. He talked about the insurrection that was not called January 6. He said Trump mishandled COVID, and one million people died; more Americans died from COVID under Joe Biden. As he rambled, he turned things over to Jill Biden, sitting next to him, which captured this failed presidency. He was never in charge; it was Jill.
The then first lady certainly was the one in charge, and there's plenty more examples than the clip above, even though it is indeed a crucial one and has gone viral for a reason. Throughout his presidency, not just when Biden, his staff, and his fellow Democrats insisted he was fit to run for reelection, there was plenty of evidence that the then president's faculties were rapidly declining while he was in office. Those who tried to claim otherwise, pointing to video evidence, were gaslit by then White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who even had the audacity to claim that what people were seeing with their own eyes amounted to "cheap fakes."
After that disastrous debate against Trump on CNN late last June, not even Biden's fellow Democrats could defend him. His wife still did, though. She and then First Son Hunter Biden even made the decision a few days later that the president would remain in the race, though his fellow Democrats still forced him out less than a month later. That same night of the debate, though, Jill Biden still offered a particularly pitiful and pathetic response for her husband, whom she treated more like a nursing home patient than the sitting president of the United States at the time.
To cheers and applause, while Biden himself looked lost, his wife told the adoring crowd that he "did SUCH a good job" and "answered every question," as well supposedly "knew all the facts." Clearly they weren't watching the same debate, especially with fumbles from Biden such as how "we finally beat Medicare," which as just one of many concerning moments.
JILL BIDEN to JOE immediately after leaving the debate stage:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 28, 2024
"Joe, you did SUCH a good job! You answered EVERY QUESTION!" pic.twitter.com/X7NyiqmI3L
The debate also came up on "The View," as NewsBusters also highlighted. Biden himself even acknowledged to co-host Whoopi Goldberg, who noted that it "freaked everybody out," was a "terrible night" and "a bad, bad night," which he supposedly knew. That's in strong contrast to the clip we see above from that same night.
While Biden acknowledged with a "yup" that the debate was what caused even his fellow Democrats to openly express concerns, he then still tried to claim that "the Democratic Party at large didn't buy it," rather that was from "the leadership." The polls--with him facing Trump as well as how his own Democrats felt about him--beg to differ.
The difference between now and then is that at least Biden is no longer (supposedly) the president. Biden may delusionally think that he could have beat Trump in a rematch--even though the polls showed Trump faring better against Biden than he did against Harris, though he was once more severely underestimated--but it's clear to see he wasn't in charge and wouldn't have remained in charge, either. That Biden tried to offer on "The View" that "the polls only showed [him] down by 2 points," when it was actually 3.1, according to RealClearPolling, is not great, especially with ho much Trump's been underestimated.
Whoopi decries how "everybody lost their mind" because Biden simply had "a bad night" at the debate.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 8, 2025
"Why do you think that caught fire? Why do you think people bought into it?" Whoopi asks.
Biden claims he was just "sick." "It's an explanation," Behar defended him. pic.twitter.com/ZJpppjnhSC
