As Democrats continue their search for a new leader, Joe Biden is reentering the chat. The former president has been on a media tour this week, sitting for an interview with the BBC that aired Wednesday and paying a visit to The View alongside wife Jill on Thursday.
Mark Halperin reported on 2Way that sources have told him Biden is on a rehabilitation tour of sorts out of desperation to stay relevant and keep the “Biden Inc.” coffers from running dry. It seems unlikely, however, that the bumbling version of the octogenarian that appeared for the softball sit-down with Whoopi Goldberg and co. is going to command the attention – or high-dollar speaking fees – he and his family desire.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by the hosts of Ruthless – Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook – to discuss some of the worst moments of the interview and what it reveals about the state of the Democrat Party today.
Biden on Kamala
In one of the headline-making moments of the interview, Biden weighed in on why he thinks Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election. He said he was not surprised Donald Trump bested her because of – wait for it – sexisim and racism.
“I wasn’t surprised – not because I didn’t think the vice president was the most qualified person to be president, she is. She’s qualified to be president United States of America,” he said. “But I… wasn’t surprised because they went the route of, the sexist route. That whole route. I mean, this is a woman. She’s this, she’s that… I’ve never seen quite a successful and consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman couldn’t leave the country – and a woman of mixed race.”
While Megyn said Biden had some “nerve” to make the claim, Duncan beleives the former president doesn’t really have another argument to make. “It’s obvious the reason why she lost. It was all the damaging video and audio of her from when she ran for president back in 2020, and it was being tethered to his terrible administration,” he explained. “It is easy for him to be like, ‘Well, it was misogyny and racism’… because then he doesn’t have to admit the thing that he was a terrible president.”
As you may recall, Harris’ appearance on The View in October 2024 produced a soundbite that turned out to be devastating for the Democratic nominee down the stretch. When asked by Sunny Hostin what she would have done differently than Biden, she stunningly said “there is not a thing that comes to mind.”
The comment spread like wildfire and was used against Harris as an example why a vote for her was a vote for more of the same. The topic came up again with Biden on Thursday when Hostin seemingly tried to do some cleanup:
HOSTIN: When the vice president was here, I asked her if she would have done something differently than your administration over the past four years. And because of all the successes that your administration had, I think her response was ‘there is not a thing that comes to mind.’ Now, that answer was weaponized against her, and there has been some reporting that you encouraged her for there to be no daylight between the two of you. First, is that true? And do you think, in retrospect, that you should have tried to differentiate all the wins that your administration had?
BIDEN: Well, look, first of all, I did non advise her say that. Number one. Like I said, I was vice president, I understand the role. Number one. Number two, I think it was– I think she was talking about she wouldn’t have changed the successes we’ve had, not opposed to we wouldn’t changes anything at all. She has to be her own person. And she was. Ahe was. And so I think that, that was used in a way that is contrary to what she meant by it when she, when she said that. And I think that, you know, she was part of every success we had. We’d argue like hell, by the way. That’s good. We’d sit and say, ‘Well, what about this reason.’ ‘Well, Joe, I don’t like that.’ Well, anyway, we worked it out.
Megyn said Hostin – who was reading from note cards the entire time – tried to serve that question up to Biden on a silver platter, and it was still a fail. “She’s like, ‘I am not going to make the same mistake twice. I already f-cked up Kamala Harris’ run for the office, and I am not going to do anything to undermine this guy, so I’m just going to give him the answer in the question,'” she noted. “She is trying to give him the softball, and then he has no idea what she has said. In his defense, it was kind of incomprehensible.”
In what he believes was one of the few moments of clarity from Biden in the interview, Ashbrook said the former president was quick to make a notable point. “There was one moment where I think something registered for Biden,” he said. “If you caught at the very end of her question she said, ‘I asked this question and the Republicans weaponized it against her,’ and he was like, ‘I didn’t tell her to say that.'”
Jill Steps In
After starting the interview alone, Jill Biden later joined the table and made her presence known. Alyssa Farah Griffin asked the former president if he would like to respond to allegations about his cognitive health in a variety of new books; and after he rambled through part of an answer and seemingly lost his train of thought, the former first lady stepped in.
“Well, Alyssa, one of the things, I think, is 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,” she claimed. “I mean, he’d get up, he’d 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, working with staff. I mean, it was non-stop.”
She went on. “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,” she continued. “I think he was a great president. And if you look at things today [applause] If you look at things today, give me Joe Biden anytime.”
Later, she was directly asked by Sarah Haines about her husband’s mental faculties:
HAINES: Naturally, you are your husband’s fiercest advocate and a close advisor. And it’s been reported you created a sort of cocoon around him and kind of limited his interactions with the media and others. Do you think you could have been too close to the situation to objectively gage whether he could handle a full four more years?
JILL: I was with Joe day and night. I saw him more than any other person. I woke up with him. I went to bed at night with him. So, I saw him all throughout the day. And I did not create a cocoon around him. I mean, you saw him in the Oval Office. You saw him making speeches. He wasn’t hiding somewhere. I didn’t have him, you know, sequestered in some place. I mean… that’s ridiculous.
She went on to say it was “very hurtful” to be called “Lady Macbeth” and the like – “especially from some of our so called friends.” The guys believed that was a reference to Nancy Pelosi and the Obamas, with whom the Bidens are not believed to be on good terms.
The Takeaway
The interview was expected in that the hosts asked softball questions – sans any substantive follow-ups – and the former president gave meandering and, often, nonsensical answers. That is why Duncan said the real takeaway is how lost the Democrat Party and its media mouthpiece are today.
“What makes me so upset about it is it is such a disservice to their audience… It is such a disservice to these Democrats who… [are] owed the truth of this because they got embarrassed in November. And if they are ever going to figure out what they are doing as a party, you actually have to ask the tough questions,” he concluded. “If they are not going to do that, hey, great for us. We love it, and it’s great content. But what a disservice… If you want to know why your ratings are in the toilet, it is because of this.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Ruthless by tuning in to episode 1,068 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.