The “View” co-hosts clashed on Thursday over President Biden’s lack of focus on high grocery prices, which the liberal hosts dismissed as they bluntly told co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin she had to “vote for Biden.”
Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin largely defended Biden and did not fault him for inflation, while noting that the president’s former White House chief of staff Ron Klain criticized Biden for being too focused on “bridges” and not spending enough time talking about the price of groceries.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that undecided voters were very worried about the price of groceries. Inflation rose 3.5 percent from March 2023 to March 2024, according to Labor Department statistics, Fox News Digital reported.
“If people knew civics, they would know that’s not his, listen, he doesn’t,” Goldberg began, pushing back.
“There are absolutely things that Biden can do to address it and grocery prices have jumped 25% over four years,” Griffin said. Behar shot back and asked, “What can he do?”
Griffin suggested Biden “challenge” major grocery chains and said there were a number of things he could do. Co-host Sara Haines chimed in and said that immigration was a major issue for voters as well.
The liberal co-hosts appeared appalled at the suggestion, as both Goldberg and Hostin argued Biden would be met with criticism either way.
Griffin said Americans were spending 11% of their income on groceries, which was also dismissed by the co-hosts, as Goldberg argued Biden was doing his job.
Towards the end of the segment, Behar told Griffin that she had to “vote for Biden,” if she really wanted former President Donald Trump to lose.
“People who are like you, who say that you hate, can’t stand Trump, you have to vote for Biden,” Behar said.
Griffin shot back and argued that Biden is not “immune” from criticism and said she was raising this issue because she didn’t want Trump to win in 2024. While Behar said criticism of the president was fine, she complained that there were “hideous” things on the Republican side of the aisle that were much worse.
“Joy, I would argue Trump won the first time because people weren’t always listening and watching the problem for what it was,” Haines told Behar, before the show broke for commercial.
Klain could be heard criticizing Biden’s focus on infrastructure, saying there is “too much talking about bridges” and not enough about “eggs and milk,” Politico reported.
“I think the president is out there too much talking about bridges,” Klain reportedly says in the audio. “He does two or three events a week where he’s cutting a ribbon on a bridge. And here’s a bridge. Like I tell you, if you go into the grocery store, you go to the grocery store and, you know, eggs and milk are expensive, the fact that there’s a f—ing bridge is not [inaudible].”
“He’s not a congressman. He’s not running for Congress,” Klain continued. “I think it’s kind of a fool’s errand. I think that [it] also doesn’t get covered that much because, look, it’s a f—ing bridge. Like it’s a bridge, and how interesting is the bridge? It’s a little interesting, but it’s not a lot interesting.”