Former President Joe Biden was in good spirits as he returned to The View on Thursday for his 11th appearance on the ABC daytime program and first live TV interview since he left the White House.
The former commander-in-chief was brought out early in the show for a solo interview before he was joined by his wife, former first lady Dr. Jill Biden. And The View devoted its full hour to its interview with the Bidens.
President Biden was peppered by questions about the 2024 presidential election, which saw the president drop out in July after a poor performance at a late June debate with then-Republican candidate Donald Trump led to growing calls for him to end his re-election bid. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate, and she won the support to become the Democratic nominee. But Harris ended up losing the election to Trump, who won all seven swing states.
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When asked if he was surprised by the outcome, Biden said he wasn’t — not because Harris isn’t qualified to be president. She is qualified to be president, he insisted. But he blamed misogyny and negative campaigning by the Trump team for Harris’ loss.
“They went the sexist route — this is a woman, she’s this, she’s that,” Biden said. “I’ve never seen such as successful and consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman couldn’t lead the country and a woman of mixed race.”
Biden added that he speaks to Harris “frequently” and has sought his opinion (“not going to tell you what it is”), and he said she’s got a “difficult decision” about her political future, as she’s been reportedly pondering a run for California governor but is also seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
“I hope she stays fully engaged; I think she’s first rate,” Biden said of Harris while adding that there are “other great candidates” in the Democratic party, leaving him “optimistic about the future not pessimistic.”
Harris’ appearance on The View in October ended up providing fodder for a Trump 2024 campaign ad when she indicated she wouldn’t do anything different from what Biden had done. Biden was asked about that and reports that he encouraged Harris not to put “too much daylight” between the two of them. He said he didn’t advise her to do that and argued Harris meant she wouldn’t have changed his administration’s successes. The Trump campaign, Biden said, used what she said “in a way contrary to what she meant when she said that.”
Still, Biden continues to maintain, as he told USA Today shortly before leaving office, that he would’ve beaten Trump, highlighting how though Trump won he received a smaller popular vote total than the more than 80 million people who voted for Biden in 2020. “A lot of people didn’t show up,” Biden said, referring to the 2024 voter turnout.
When asked about his late exit from the 2024 presidential race and whether that hampered Harris’ campaign, Biden dismissed that argument saying that Harris was with him “in every decision we made,” touting his administration’s legislative and economic achievements and how “she was every single part of it.”
“It was a very tough year across the board, but look what happened in the meantime,” he said in part.
As for Trump, when asked why the president, who keeps invoking Biden’s name, can’t stop talking about him, Biden was quick to say it was because “I beat him,” adding quietly, “I’m used to dealing with bullies.”
Later, when asked about Trump challenging Biden’s use of an autopen to preemptively pardon his family members, with Trump calling the pardons “void and vacant,” Biden quickly shot back, “He’s vacant,” which moderator Whoopi Goldberg called a “dropping of the mic” moment.
Still Biden said he “takes responsibility” for Trump’s re-election.
“I was in charge and he won,” he said, going on to talk about the border legislation that Democrats have said Trump scuttled.
Biden, who frequently touted his administration’s accomplishments, also lobbed criticism at Trump over his foreign and domestic policy.
“I think he’s done a very poor job,” Biden said of Trump, claiming his successor was “blowing up” NATO, creating “long-term and negative” consequences and calling him out for his “relationship with Putin,” and Biden raised his voice and sounded particularly fired up when he asked, rhetorically, “what possible reason” could Trump have for “going after people’s health care and social security.”
Joined by Dr. Jill Biden in the second half of the program, the couple responded to allegations, including ones in new books, that he suffered a cognitive decline when he was in the White House.
“They are wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that,” Biden said in part. He also laughed when Jill Biden was asked about claims she put a “cocoon” around him.
Jill Biden said of the books, “the people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us and didn’t see how hard Joe worked every day,” highlighting how he would be reading briefings and on the phone with his staff late into the night.
“It’s not a job; it’s a life that you live 24 hours a day,” Jill Biden said of the presidency.
Looking back on his decision to drop out after more and more high-profile Democrats urged him to step aside, Biden said, “The only reason got out of the race was because I didn’t want to have a divided Democratic party. I thought it was better to put country before personal interests. I had six more months. I did a pretty good job in six months.”
He went on to say,” There’s nothing that changed in terms of my work ethic or success with domestic or foreign policy. I get it. I understand the concern. I would offer specific evidence of what I got done when I supposedly lost my cognitive ability.”
As for the “cocoon” claim, Jill Biden said she did not do that, arguing that people saw her husband in the Oval Office and making speeches.
“He wasn’t hiding somewhere,” she said, later adding that being likened to Lady Macbeth was “very hurtful, especially from some of our so-called friends.”
On a more personal note, when asked how he was doing at the top of the show, Biden said he was “well” and so was his family as they were adjusting to life after his presidency.
The former president added that he was “trying to figure out what sort of significant and consequential role I can play, consistent with what I’ve done in the past.”
He also said he’s writing another book.
“I’ve got to write a presidential memoir, but they told me I’ve got to do it within a year,” Biden said.
The former president also poked fun at his many appearances on The View saying, “I miss being here” and joking that he was “interviewing for a job as a cameraman.”
