Do you know what we really didn’t miss in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s debate debacle on June 27? Whoopi Goldberg’s take.
Yes, the first-among-equals on ABC’s “The View” was taking a break from the show when the disaster happened. And who could blame her? After all, these debates don’t usually shift opinion in any demonstrative way.
Then again, you usually don’t see candidates’ campaigns releasing a 90-second ad after the debates featuring the other candidate talking — or attempting to talk — without their guy or gal saying anything. However, that’s exactly what former President Donald Trump’s team was able to do:
Needless to say, the drugs didn’t work. pic.twitter.com/3lYHnU476w
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) June 28, 2024
However, Whoopi made it clear that Joe Biden would have to do a lot more to un-earn her vote. Like, a lot more.
“So I mean, listen I’m just going to add my two cents because I wasn’t here on the day that y’all talked about it: I don’t care if he’s pooped his pants,” Whoopi said on Monday’s edition of “The View.”
“I don’t care if he can’t put a sentence together. Show me he can’t do the job, and then I’ll say, OK — maybe it’s time to go,” she added.
“Now he had a bad night the first time that he went out and debated with Kamala Harris and everybody wanted him to quit then and said, ‘You can’t talk to women like this. You’re doing this wrong, you’re doing that wrong.’ He came back and said, ‘You know what? I got it.’ And gave four years,” she added.
Should Biden retire?
Goldberg was referring to the June 2019 Democratic candidates’ debate in which Harris, then running for president, effectively called Biden a racist for making common cause with Dixiecrats over school busing and then describing how he was able to work with said Dixiecrats as evidence of a different era of “civility” in Washington:
This problem for Biden had everything to do with what Harris had said to take advantage of a minor — at least by current standards — Biden solecism, not an entire debate’s worth of mouth-agape stumbling that appeared to be age-related, as the country saw on June 27. But, to Whoopi, the 2019 debate is evidence that Biden can come back from the 2024 debacle.
“So yeah, I have poopy days all the time, all the time. I step in so much poo you can’t even imagine,” she said to laughter.
Whoopi: “I don’t care if [Biden] pooped his pants. I don’t care if he can’t put a sentence together. Show me he can’t do the job, and then I’ll say, okay, maybe it’s time to go…I have poopy day all the time. All the time.” pic.twitter.com/QlMHzH8LF9
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 8, 2024
So, when Biden can’t do the job of leader of the free world, then it’s time for him to leave, according to Whoopi Goldberg. But even if he defecated in his pants accidentally or couldn’t put a sentence together — and we know the last one actually happened — that wouldn’t be evidence of the fact he’d need to recuse himself from the job.
This is according to the co-host of “The View,” a show that’s significantly less important than the presidency but where the ability to complete a sentence or not poop your pants on air is kind of required to keep employment.
We can learn two things from this episode, both having to do with denial.
On the Democratic side, we have the denial of Biden’s condition. After saying she didn’t care whether he had control of his bowels or his language, Goldberg went on to mention the moment when Kamala schooled him five years ago as evidence that Biden can come back from adversity.
But Biden mitigating adverse political events — his 1988 presidential campaign going bust over plagiarism and lying allegations, his 2008 campaign going bust over nobody caring about it, his 2020 campaign almost going bust after he lost big in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary — and Biden mitigating the organic effects of aging are two different things entirely.
When it comes to dealing with political adversity, a candidate can reverse the perception of the electorate if he indeed has the tools to do so. However, it’s impossible to alter the reality of one’s ability to reverse that perception if that ability does not exist in the first place.
Biden’s performance during the debate with Trump, combined with his interviews in the week-and-a-half since, prove that this ability is either entirely or almost entirely lacking. This isn’t about perception or temporary headwinds, it’s about the heartbreaking but bedrock realities of aging.
On the Republican side, it’s worth noting that this will be the Democratic line if Joe Biden doesn’t drop out. Oh, Biden can’t form a full sentence and Trump can? Well, Whoopi doesn’t care — and she’ll even see your bet and raise you.
She doesn’t care if he has control over his bodily functions! Just so long as he can “do the job” — which, to her, means being alive and having a “D” after his name on the ballot. Democrats are going to be betting that enough Americans agree with her to put Biden back in the Oval Office.
Even as pressure grows for Biden to bow out of the race, the establishment media outlets are treating Biden’s condition as if it’s a shock to them. Then, once they get over the shock, which will still take quite some time, they’ll start pretending as if it doesn’t matter.
It’s going to be the Republicans’ job to prove them wrong. As Goldberg’s reaction shows, though, that isn’t going to be as easy as it sounds.
