Whoopi Goldberg tells Joe Biden she ‘didn’t like’ public pleas for resignation

Whoopi Goldberg announced that she’s still standing by Joe Biden as the President of the United States sat down for a wide-ranging interview at The View‘s Hot Topics table.

After numerous pleas — including from George Clooney and Goldberg’s View cohosts Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin — urged Biden to bow out of the race against Donald Trump following his disastrous debate performance in June, the Oscar-winning Ghost actress told Biden, to his face on Wednesday’s live show, that she didn’t like how things played out in public.

Goldberg made the assertion after Griffin asked Biden, who previously said on the show that he was “at peace” with his decision to step aside, if he felt his “hand was forced” by other Democrats to make the decision to drop out, and inquired about his relationship with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“The relationship is fine,” Biden said, pausing to smile as Goldberg gave him a knowing laugh. “I never fully believed the assertions that somehow there was this overwhelming reluctance with my running again. I didn’t sense that.”

He went on to cite polling that showed him “in range of beating” Trump if he’d remained in the race, before discussing “some folks who’d like to see me step aside so they have a chance to move on,” which he said he understood at the time.

“Do you think had you stayed in the race, you would have won?” Griffin cut in, to which Biden replied: “Yes. I was confident I would beat Trump. He’s a loser.”

Goldberg then launched into an impassioned criticism of Democratic tactics.

“Listen, I didn’t like the way they did it. I’m just going to say it out loud because nobody says it out loud. I didn’t like the way it was done publicly, I thought they could’ve done this in a different way. We didn’t need to hear all the inner-fighting. I didn’t like it, I’m saying it to you, you were my ride-or-die,” Goldberg said as Biden lowered his head in thanks. “I was going wherever you were going, that’s where I was going. I just wanted to say that because I always felt you were going to probably do four years and then try to figure out where to go with Kamala [Harris].”

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Goldberg then likened Trump to “a bug” who kept buzzing around the country’s politics, prompting Biden to slam his hand on the table as if he was squashing a fly.

“That’s what was needed, and you did it, I just wanted to say thank you,” Goldberg continued. “But, thank you for everything you’ve done in my entire lifetime.”

In July, Clooney — an influential organizer and fund-raising powerhouse for the Democratic party — published a New York Times essay calling for his longtime friend to bow out of the race, citing alleged anxiety amid conversations with other top Democrats behind the scenes, claiming that “every single one” shared the assumption that “we are not going to win in November with this president.”

Following the debate, Haines said on The View that “it kind of pains me to say this today, but I think President Biden needs to step down and be replaced if we want to defeat Donald Trump in November,” before calling on Democrats to stop “twisting the age issue” by making excuses for Biden.

“Donald Trump was a mess. He lied his way through it, but Joe Biden’s performance was so bad that it eclipsed everything that Donald Trump said,” Griffin, who worked under Trump at the White House between 2019 and 2020, added. “He needs to put country before his own ambition and he needs to step aside and pass the baton.”

Biden eventually dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on July 21, endorsing Harris as his successor on the Democratic ticket.

Biden’s appearance marks the latest in a legacy of the show welcoming presidents to sit at the Hot Topics table — or, as was the case for Barack Obama, the show’s infamous interview couch back in 2010.

Other high-profile guests who’ve appeared on the show in recent months include Vice President Harris, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson.

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/PT on ABC.