The View descended into a full blown argument on Friday the co-hosts collided over revelations from the explosive new book Original Sin, which alleges there was a stunning cover-up of President Joe Biden‘s cognitive decline.
The book, co-authored by CNN‘s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, paints a picture of a president slipping away behind closed doors as Democratic leaders closed ranks to conceal it from the public.
But on Friday’s episode, the bigger story wasn’t the book but the five-way verbal brawl that ensued on live television.
‘We have Trump because you guys screwed this up,’ declared conservative co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin sending the studio discussion into freefall.
Her fury boiled over after co-host Joy Behar attempted to wave away growing concerns about Biden’s mental acuity.
‘With all due respect, the reason we are here is because you lied to people about what was obvious,’ Griffin shouted. ‘People saw him decline with their own eyes and were told to shut up. That’s not democracy.’
‘You want to relitigate 2024? It’s over. The ship has sailed. It’s out in the ocean somewhere with Biden. Get over it!’ Behar responded.
‘Which administration texted war plans to their brother?’ asked sarcastically. ‘You want to talk about decline? Let’s talk about that.’
A blistering live segment descended into a full blown argument on Friday as the co-hosts of The View collided over revelations from the explosive new book alleging how there was a stunning cover-up of President Joe Biden ‘s cognitive decline
The book paints a picture of a president slipping away behind closed doors as Democratic leaders closed ranks to conceal it from the public
Griffin did not take the bait. ‘That’s not the point, Joy,’ she said. ‘This isn’t about defending Trump. This is about the Democratic Party lying to its own voters.’
‘Do we just keep lowering the bar because Trump is bad? Nothing else is bad because Trump is bad? Democrats lied to voters. They gaslit America,’ she snapped, pointing to poll numbers showing Biden’s approval cratering after voters’ concerns about his age were dismissed.
Co-host Sara Haines chimed in with perhaps the most jaw-dropping anecdote from the book how at a June 2024 fundraiser in Los Angeles, President Biden reportedly didn’t recognize George Clooney.
The actor who had flown in from Italy and helped organize the event. Clooney himself confirmed the story to Tapper.
‘George Clooney flew in from Italy for a major fundraiser,’ she explained. ‘He moved mountains to do it – and Biden didn’t recognize him. That’s not a flub. That’s frightening.
‘He’s one of the most recognizable men on the planet,’ Haines said. ‘If he can’t identify Clooney, how is he going to handle a 3am call about nuclear escalation in the Middle East?
‘That’s not just a slip. That’s terrifying,’ Haines said. ‘This is a man asking to lead us through midnight calls and wartime decisions.’
Sunny Hostin said she wanted ‘to move on from why the Democratic Party lost’
Sara Haines says voters ‘lost trust’ in the Democrats because they ignored Biden’s failing mental acuity and ‘told the voters what to care about and did not listen.’
Behar brushed the moment aside. ‘George Clooney looks different lately! He does. That’s not a reason to bring down a president.’
But Haines stuck to her point. ‘People felt lied to. They said he was too old, too frail – and they were told to sit down and be quiet. That’s why voters lost trust.’
Ana Navarro, a longtime Biden ally who admitted she’s known the president for three decades, came to his defense.
‘Do I think this is the same man I knew 25 years ago? No,’ Navarro conceded. ‘But did his cognitive skills ever compromise the presidency? Absolutely not.
Navarro tore into the book’s sources. ‘If you were part of that administration and didn’t have the gonads to speak when it mattered – and now you’re speaking anonymously in a book – you’re a coward, period.
‘We are not in normal times. And you’re sitting here talking about Biden forgetting George Clooney?!’
As Haines pointed out that Biden’s decline was ‘progressive’ and voters deserved honesty, Navarro shot back with fury: ‘We are not in normal times. We’re fighting creeping authoritarianism, attacks on civil rights, due process, the rule of law – and you want to talk about George Clooney?!’
Navarro declared how voters in 2024 were faced with a binary: ‘A decent, aging man or a convicted felon who tried to overturn democracy. And they chose Trump. That’s not Biden’s fault. That’s America’s.’
Ana Navarro, left, a longtime Biden ally who admitted she’s known the president for three decades, came to his defense
Co-host Joy Behar attempted to wave away growing concerns about Biden’s mental acuity
As the show spiraled, co-host Sunny Hostin took the conversation in another direction, accusing the Biden administration of racial favoritism in refugee policy.
‘I want to talk about why this administration is giving refugee status to white South African Afrikaners while people of color – Afghans, Haitians, even some Ukrainians – are left behind!’ Hostin said, raising her voice. ‘That’s what I want to talk about. Not George Clooney.’
When Haines accused Democrats of adopting Republican-style deflection ‘don’t look back, look over there’, Navarro interjected: ‘How did Biden violate any laws? What insurrection did he lead?’
Then came the most jarring moment of the morning as co-host Sunny Hostin derailed the conversation into a screed about race and immigration policy.
‘I want to talk about why this administration is giving refugee status to white South African Afrikaners while Afghans, Ukrainians, and people of color are left behind,’ she said, shouting over Haines, who was trying to steer the discussion back to Biden’s electability. ‘That’s what I want to talk about — not why Biden forgot someone’s name!’
When Haines tried to clarify that acknowledging Biden’s health didn’t equate to abandoning Democratic values, Hostin shouted: ‘I want to move on from why the Democratic Party lost. I want to hear how we take this country back, how we stop cuts to Medicaid, how we stop billionaires from looting the treasury!’
Jake Tapper of CNN purports, along with co-author Alex Thompson of Axios, to ‘blow the lid’ off the Biden White House that kept the president’s steep mental and physical decline a secret
Griffin and Haines argued that without accountability for the deception, voters would continue to walk away from the Democratic Party.
Hostin, almost shouting, responded: ‘So we should just hand the country back to Trump? Really? That’s the plan?!’
The original spark behind the argument was Jake Tapper’s own admission that Original Sin was stonewalled by Democratic insiders. ‘We spoke with more than 200 people – almost all Democrats – and they wouldn’t be candid with us until after the election,’ Tapper admitted.
‘There were two Bidens. One was capable. The other was alarmingly disengaged.’
That duplicity, said Griffin and Haines, is what cost Democrats their moral high ground.
‘There was no primary. There was no process,’ Griffin fumed. ‘Voters were told what to think – and when they didn’t, they were ignored. That’s how you lose elections.’
Even Navarro acknowledged a shift. ‘Is this the same Biden I knew in the ’90s? No. But I still believe in his decency.’
As tempers flared and the segment stretched past its planned runtime, Behar, visibly exasperated, threw her hands up and cut to commercial.
‘All right! Enough. We’ll be right back – with the New York Housewives,’ she said, as the cameras cut away.
