The cohosts of ABC’s “The View” attempted to handicap the upcoming debates between incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden and his rival, former President Donald Trump — and managed to miss the mark on most of their analyses.
The cohosts spent a segment of Wednesday’s broadcast reacting to the news that Biden — in a 14-second video that required five jump cuts and the phrase “make my day” — had challenged Trump to debate him ahead of the 2024 presidential election in November.
Whoopi Goldberg began with an explanation of a few of the demands Biden had made — from friendly outlets and moderators to a mandatory mic cut-off once time expired — and said she appreciated the changes because she thought new rules would keep Trump in line.
She then claimed that the moderators had “allowed” Trump to walk around behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a debate “and stalk her” instead of telling him that he had to remain behind the podium. What she left out was the fact that, during the debate in question, there was no podium and both candidates were free to walk around because it was intended to be a town hall.
WATCH:
The View praises CNN for going along with Biden's debate demands of "no audience" and cutting mics when the time expires.
They falsely claim Trump left his podium during a debate with Hillary Clinton to "stalk" her while she was speaking.
There were no podiums, it was a town hall pic.twitter.com/7CyFNkEH24— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 15, 2024
Cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin weighed in next, saying that it was “smart of Biden to get ahead of this by challenging Trump” to debate him. However, Biden’s challenge came behind multiple calls from Trump for the pair to debate. Trump called on his likely opponent to debate him in early February, again after both he and Biden each swept their respective Super Tuesday races, and once more in late April.
Sunny Hostin went on to suggest that Biden had “the edge” when it came to debates because he could use the multiple charges against Trump as attack points — but she left out the fact that polling has suggested a majority of Americans believe at least some of the charges against the former president are politically motivated.
WATCH:
Sunny Hostin declares that debates don't matter but "Biden clearly has the edge" because he can harp on the charges brought against Trump by Democratic DAs and his DOJ. pic.twitter.com/VBLAetdez5
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 15, 2024
Cohost Sara Haines got close to a legitimate analysis when she acknowledged that a debate without an audience was likely an advantage for President Biden.
Goldberg cut back in then, saying that she didn’t believe the debate would happen anyway because she believed Trump would ditch at the last minute. “He’s a backer outer anyway,” she said.
WATCH:
Whoopi Goldberg claims Trump will back out of the debate because "he's a backer outter anyway."
Joy Behar adds that Trump "will come across as the low-information candidate that he is." Like "Bozo the Clown" vs a "statesman."
Whoopi predicts Trump will go "off the rails." pic.twitter.com/MQjZb2GtF1— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 15, 2024