Co-hosts on “The View” defended President Joe Biden Thursday in the wake of a gaffe involving the late Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana.
“I mean, she passed last month, not like a hundred years ago,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said.
Biden asked for Walorski, who was killed along with two staffers in an August motor vehicle accident, during a Wednesday conference on hunger. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed Biden’s gaffe was due to Walorski being “top of mind.”
“I don’t know a human that hasn’t sat in a room and gone to say something and like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and I think that was very apparent what this gaffe was,” Sarah Haines said.
“I think her explanation made it worse, though, because in that moment I probably would have just said: OK guys … he had a moment, who in this room hasn’t, and then just move on. The fact that she kept kind of repeating the same words –”
“Well she couldn’t really move on so easily because the right wing has weaponized –” Joy Behar said.
Haines tried to explain the White House reporters were not right-wing, but Behar cut her off.
“They weaponized the gaffes, they’ve said that he’s senile,” Behar said. “You know I … I found a Gallup poll from 1980 that showed that the number one concern Americans had about Ronald Reagan was that, quote, ‘He puts his foot in his mouth without thinking or considering the consequences,’ and he is the patron saint of the Republican Party.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin accused Biden’s critics of ageism for criticizing the gaffe.
Do you think President Biden is suffering from senility?
“It really shows that this country is so ageist. This country has a problem with age. You know, you go to other countries, and our elders are revered because of the knowledge that they have acquired, and this is a man who has worked in government his entire life,” Hostin said.
“This is a man who probably had a relationship with this woman, and yes, she probably was top of mind. I was thinking about my grandmother the other day and, like, almost reached out to call her on the phone. She’s been passed. She passed away five years ago. It could happen to anyone and I think they need to stop weaponizing his age.”
“My issue was less the comment itself, because people do make mistakes and Biden, by the way, has been gaffe-prone his whole career. I think it’s actually an endearing thing about him. It was more, the cover-up was worse than the crime,” Alyssa Farah Griffin said.
“I think she could have just said it was a mistake. ‘This was a really important issue we’re drawing attention to, addressing hunger, Jackie Walorski was a champion of it when she was in Congress,’ and moved on. These were not right-wing reporters.”
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