Sara Haines is the co-host of ABC’s The View who’s supposed to be the voice of “independent” voters in the middle. But while she has defended conservatives on some things, the mask has slipped plenty of time. Such was the cast on Monday’s show when she grew frustrated with “the media” for not doing enough to help reelect President Biden – like airing his campaign events – because they were obsessed with the hush money trial of former President Trump.
“I actually blame the media slightly,” she huffed talking about Biden’s slumping poll numbers. Her solution was to stop sitting outside the New York City courthouse and start airing Biden’s campaign events.
Throwing away the illusion of being an independent, she particularly wanted them to focus on the events that were about “a winning issue for Democrats”:
We talked last week a lot about how I don't think people are able to watch this Trump trial 24/7, like all the time. It's a still shot. It's a picture of a door. It's all this stuff.
Now, we're talking about we're in a campaign. We should be hearing more. We say, why don't we hear from the Biden administration? I don't leave that all on the Biden administration's door. The media needs to cover things. For example, abortion is a winning issue for Democrats. Women's reproductive health. Vice President Harris did an event last week. I couldn't find any coverage on it. And that's a Democrat's winning stance.
“I also think that there was an asylum regulation decided on with the border. Everyone has agreed the border's a problem. Didn't see any coverage on that because we're busy watching the Donald Trump door not opening,” she decried.
Haines also whined that after Biden’s speech condemning anti-Semitism last week, “They cut to the speech, came back and talked about Donald Trump.” She described the whole thing as “Donald Trump is Donald-Trumping us. It's Deja Vu from 2016, and the coverage.” “It's ridiculous!” she said of the media covering Trump.
The segment was kicked off by moderator Whoopi Goldberg lashing out at CNN’s Fareed Zakaria for calling attention to new polling showing a 25-point swing in Trump’s favor on competency. His warning that it was “a reflection of people's sense that the President's age is affecting his capacity to govern. And there's very little that Joe Biden can do now to change that perception,” triggered her.
“Well, what's the point of having a conversation if you're saying it's a done deal? You know, you can't do that,” she denounced.
Fake-Republican Ana Navarro agreed with Haines. According to her, “you don’t have a choice” of who to vote for other than Biden because “This is a binary choice America has between good and evil…”
Faux-conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin admitted it was “hard to wrap our heads around” the fact that “a lot of voters attribute the pre-pandemic economy to Donald Trump. They don't blame him for the global phenomena that was the pandemic.”
“Joe Biden has objectively achieved a lot on the economy,” Farah Griffin proclaimed while saying Biden’s messaging was too dismissive of Americans’ discontent with high inflation.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
May 13, 2024
11:02:43 a.m. Eastern(…)
FAREED ZAKARIA: The one that troubles me the most is on the question of who was the more competent. Joe Biden led Donald Trump by nine points in 2020. But Trump now leads by 16 points in January 2024. That 25-point shift could be a reflection of people's sense that the President's age is affecting his capacity to govern. And there's very little that Joe Biden can do now to change that perception.
[Cuts back to live]
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Well, what's the point of having a conversation if you're saying it's a done deal? You know, you can't do that? And it's not a done deal until the people of the United States vote. That's when it's a done deal. But, you know, we have this conversation, what, twice a week. So, you know the question. What do you think?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: So, I've got to say I agreed with a lot of Fareed Zakaria's take. And I want to underscore: I want Trump to lose! So, it's important to me six months out with this platform that we have to talk about some very real trends and signs that Donald Trump may be far stronger than we think he is.
It may be hard to wrap our heads around. I personally – as someone who has testified against him, has talked about how unfit he is – it's hard to believe he has as much support as he does. One thing he talked about was the economy. And I was trying to make sense of this because, obviously, he left office in 2020; the economy was in freefall, massive unemployment.
But what I think it is is a lot of voters attribute the pre-pandemic economy to Donald Trump. They don't blame him for the global phenomena that was the pandemic.
Joe Biden has objectively achieved a lot on the economy. He did the infrastructure package as well. He has things to brag about. But my problem is this: he did an interview with Erin Burnett and he said, ‘actually, you're better off than you think you are.’ That's a bad message. When people's grocery prices are up 30 percent, you're saying believe me rather than what your bank account is telling you.
He's got six months to come up with an inspiring, forward-looking message and get out there and talk about it. And for us, I think it’s important – I engage Trump voters and I don't do it to make them feel shamed or to attack them for where they are but to talk about what a second term could look like and how dangerous it is. I think that's how we need to be using our voices. And the campaign – the Biden campaign just has to get more active.
SARA HAINES: Yeah. I would say when you say, ‘the Biden campaign has to get more active,’ I actually blame the media slightly. We talked last week a lot about how I don't think people are able to watch this Trump trial 24/7, like all the time. It's a still shot. It's a picture of a door. It's all this stuff.
Now, we're talking about we're in a campaign. We should be hearing more. We say, why don't we hear from the Biden administration? I don't leave that all on the Biden administration's door. The media needs to cover things. For example, abortion is a winning issue for Democrats. Women's reproductive health. Vice President Harris did an event last week. I couldn't find any coverage on it. And that's a Democrat's winning stance.
I also think that there was an asylum regulation decided on with the border. Everyone has agreed the border's a problem. Didn't see any coverage on that because we're busy watching the Donald Trump door not opening.
GOLDBERG: And don't forget Nikki Haley, her win. Didn't he win? Didn’t she pick up a whole lot –
FARAH GRIFFIN: Yeah. She got like 150,000 –
HAINES: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But also you’ve got, last week, our incumbent president stepped in to do a speech on anti-Semitism. They cut to the speech, came back and talked about Donald Trump.
So, what's happening here is Donald Trump is Donald trumping us. It's Deja Vu from 2016, and the coverage -- the irony is the people covering that news thinks they're getting one up on Donald Trump while they're handing him a lot of votes because of the coverage. It's ridiculous!
ANA NAVARRO: I’ve been saying – I agree with you. I’ve been saying from the beginning I actually think this trial is somewhat helping Donald Trump because it's keeping him off the trail and because we are not focusing on the stupid stuff he says on a daily basis. And that is helping him.
On Biden, look – You know, at first it was people saying, we don't like our choices. What else? What third candidate? Well, no third candidate. No knight in shining armor appeared. Now, I'm hearing people say, is there a way in the convention they can change the candidate? That's not going to happen. I'm going to say it until I'm blue in the face. I'm going to say it until the day of election, this is a binary choice. This is a binary choice America has between good and evil, between decency and havoc, between indicted and 88 counts and not.
I mean, you know? They're both old. If that's what's keeping you at night -- up at night -- you don't have a choice.
(…)
