‘The View’ co-host argues it’s ‘not fair’ to tell voters to ‘close their eyes’ on Biden age, vitality concerns

“The View” co-host Sara Haines argued on Tuesday that it wasn’t fair to tell voters to “close their eyes” on concerns about President Biden’s age and vitality. 

While discussing “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart’s monologue focused on both Biden and Donald Trump’s age, Haines said that while she still plans to vote for Biden, she remains honest about his gaffes that are of concern to Americans. 

“Voters are concerned and by telling them they shouldn’t be or that they’re following a Republican narrative by listening to it, you’re literally saying, like, ‘Close your eyes to what you’re seeing,’ or you’re making them feel bad for raising something, and as Jon Stewart said in there, replace age with vitality… I don’t think it’s fair to tell them to close their eyes to what they’re seeing right now,” Haines said. 

Hostin declared during the segment that fellow co-host Joy Behar was the “sharpest tack in the box,” before arguing that Stewart’s monologue was “offensive” because there was a difference between age and “intelligence.” 

“The View” co-host Sara Haines said it wasn’t fair to tell voters to “close their eyes” on concerns about Biden’s “age and vitality.” (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)

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“They’ve got babies in their 80s,” Hostin said, citing Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. “Jane Fonda, 86, Representative Maxine Waters, 85, Bernie Sanders, 82. Nancy Pelosi, 83. I don’t know, they look like they know what they’re doing. If they have the wisdom, they have the history, the problem with this country is that we don’t value people with their wisdom. We don’t value seniors.”

“I’m sick of this ageism problem!” she continued. 

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that Biden’s age was a legitimate issue and praised Stewart for taking shots at both Democrats and Republicans. 

She underscored that the 2024 election was “high stakes,” and that Biden should be under the most scrutiny because of the high stakes as he tries to prevent Trump from taking the White House again.

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Co-host Whoopi Goldberg responded to Haines’ remarks at the start of the segment. 

“I don’t think anybody is saying, ‘Close your eyes to what Joe Biden’s going through,’ or what people think he’s going through, and I do think a lot of it is perpetuated by the media,” she said.

“As I said yesterday, yes, he’s old, OK, but the minute he stops being productive, and this sounds terrible, but the minute he stops being able to do his presidential duty, he’s got to go, but I’m not advocating for him to go. I’m advocating for people to not dwell on the fact that he is an age that we cannot change,” she added.”

Jon Stewart returned to host “The Daily Show” on Monday nights on February 12, 2024. (Comedy Central)

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Stewart said during the show that Biden and Trump were not the same, rattling off, “Joe Biden isn’t Donald Trump. He hasn’t been indicted as many times, he hasn’t had as many fraudulent businesses or been convicted in a civil trial for sexual assault or been ordered to pay defamation or had his charities disbanded or stiffed a s–t town of blue-collar tradesmen he’d hired.”

But the stakes of the election made Biden more subject to scrutiny, not less, Stewart told the audience.

Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report.