‘The View’ Host Sara Haines Urges Biden to Step Down After Debate

“The View” hosts Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro and Alyssa Farah Griffin spent 10 minutes at the beginning of the June 28 episode discussing the disastrous 2024 first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Both Haines and Griffin agreed that it was time for Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee due to his poor physical performance during the debate, although Haines stressed that she would still vote for him if he decided to stay in the race.

“It was really hard to watch and I hate to say it today, but I think President Biden should step down and be replaced,” Haines told her co-hosts. “If we want to defeat Donald Trump in November, I absolutely believe so. I think Biden’s team saw this coming. They therefore insisted on an earlier debate to give themselves time to change course if necessary. But they must act quickly, and I implore those closest to the President to have the very difficult conversations that they will need to have, not just because of the political consequences, but for the sake of humanity, his integrity and his legacy. It’s all on the line now.”

“The Democrats need to stop bringing up the age issue,” she continued. “A lot of people are concerned about his age, and the Democrats have twisted themselves into a pretzel and said, ‘Don’t believe your lying eyes.’ That’s not true; Joy ​​Behar is 81. Joy Behar at 81 is not Joe Biden at 81, and that was very apparent last night. But let me be clear. If November comes and Donald Trump and Joe Biden are on the ballot, I will 100 percent vote for President Biden. The alternative is too terrifying for me. But I’m afraid that a lot of people in this country don’t feel the same way.”

Griffin agreed with Haines, saying she was “truly shocked” by Biden’s debate performance and called it “mind-bogglingly worse than I expected.” She reminded viewers that Donald Trump was also a disaster and “lied, but Biden’s physical weakness was so great that it outweighed Trump’s nonsense.”

“Biden’s performance was so bad that it overshadowed anything Donald Trump said,” Griffin said. “Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy. We need someone who can defeat him… (Joe) has to put country before his own ambitions and he has to step down and pass the baton. Mark my words, if it’s Trump versus Biden, it’s going to be Trump.”

Navarro defended Biden more passionately, saying she was not going to let a 90-minute debate taint Biden’s larger history as a respected politician.

“Until Joe Biden tells me he’s giving up, I’m not giving up on Joe Biden,” Navarro said as the audience cheered. “The binary choice remains the same. It looked old, sounded old and is old, but the choice is no different. It was a very old man versus a very bad man.”

Watch the entire debate segment on “The View” below.