'View' hosts clash over Democrats hiding Biden's decline as one says it's 'why people want to be independents'

Co-hosts of "The View" argued Friday over how the Democratic Party should look back at how they alienated voters by covering up then-President Joe Biden's decline.

Months after President Donald Trump won again, Democrats are still trying to understand how their party lost the presidential election. Biden’s administration was dogged by questions about his mental acuity and now more revelations are coming out about how his defenders turned a blind eye to his decline or condemned those who questioned his ability to serve.

"The 2024 presidential campaign was even more of a mess for Democrats than we even saw," co-host Joy Behar said, noting that multiple books are reporting inside information about the Biden presidency and campaign. 

Even so, Behar argued, "We have to take a lot of this, I think, with a bit of a grain of salt. I mean, if any of this is true, what can Democrats do about it now? I mean, it seems to me this ship has sailed, what’s the point?"

BIDEN INSIDER EXPRESSES HOW WHITE HOUSE ‘GASLIT’ THE PUBLIC ABOUT FORMER PRESIDENT'S DECLINE

"The View" co-host Sara Haines argued that the Democrats have alienated voters with their "fall in line" attitude toward skeptics of then-President Biden's mental acuity.  (ABC/"The View")

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that Biden, despite the fact he stepped down, was instrumental in the Democratic Party’s defeat.

"We're in a moment we're in where a lot of people are scared, they're nervous. They're worried that we're seeing America fundamentally changed. And a reason for that, not just a little asterisk, is that Joe Biden did not win, did not step aside in time to allow someone else to win, and I do think it is a story that warrants some reflection," she said.

Griffin went on to argue that Biden let himself be carried away by his ego and compared him to Trump.

"People always think I'm so critical just because I think he needed to step aside and give someone else a chance. He does start to come off, the more we're learning, like, ‘I alone can fix it.’ It almost comes off Trumpy," she said, going on to argue that if Biden had stepped down sooner, his Democratic successor could have had a better chance at winning the election.

Co-host Sara Haines offered another major takeaway: "Listen to the voters."

"One thing that really pissed me off as an independent, and I was one of the people that sat here and said after seeing President Biden - I voted for Biden, I really liked Biden, I actually have been happy with him, and I would have voted for him if he continued to run - but I did look at him and think, ‘I think maybe you do need to step aside,' and now the rumors that we're hearing [are] starting to make sense."

Hosts of "The View" debated on whether it is productive to continue postmortem analysis of why Democrats lost the 2024 election. (ABC/ "The View")

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The immediate response to questioning Biden’s acuity was swift and angry, she recalled.

"What happened is everyone said, ‘You're disloyal if you say that, shut up and fall in line,’ and that's why people want to be independents these days, because partisan politics, they lie," Haines said. "It was the Democratic Party that made that choice, that said, ‘You're betraying him if you call it like you see it,’ and the point here was is he wasn't necessarily fit to run for another four years."

Ana Navarro disagreed, instead echoing Behar and co-host Sunny Hostin’s lack of interest in a postmortem analysis of the Democratic Party’s efforts in the election.

"Usually I like these books, usually I like campaign gossip of ‘Primary Colors’ after Clinton or, oh, after Obama or 'Game Change' after McCain, but these are not normal times," she said. "So I'm just not interested in palace gossip from a year and a half ago." 

She went on to offer a laundry list of problems she'd rather focus on with the current Trump administration.

President Biden appeared on "The View" in September. (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)

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"Two things can be true at once," Haines replied. "You can despise Trump and everything the Republicans stand for, and still be able to see straight about what happened here. And denying it and telling people, ‘You're not seeing what you're seeing,’ is never going to win voters, ever!"