Just In:“I would’ve preferred my Democrats to not do this publicly and in everybody’s face,” Goldberg said about the way Biden faced so much public pressure to step down from his fellow Democrats.

“The View” hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Ana Navarro, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sara Haines kicked off Monday’s episode of the ABC talk show by discussing Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential election. As Goldberg put it at the top of the show: “This is what everyone was asking for. And this is a decision he made. Is everybody OK?”

“It shows what a patriot he is. It shows he can put his country before his ego,” Hostin said, praising Biden for the decision. “He has such a great record as president. History will note him as one of the greatest presidents that we’ve had. I really do believe that. But I wasn’t comfortable with the notion that people were forcing him out. I wasn’t comfortable with the cannibalization I saw within the Democratic party. But I am comfortable if he made this decision with his inner circle and family and decided to do it on his own.”

Hostin’s co-hosts shared her frustration with the Democratic party. While Navarro was “full of gratitude” for Biden over the decision to drop out, she noted that “I was also mad because he’s been dragged relentlessly for three weeks by some people who were supposedly his friend. I hope those donors who said things about him come back with big checks now. George Clooney…”

Clooney made headlines on July 10 for publishing an op-ed in The New York Times in which he urged Biden to end his campaign following Biden’s disastrous performance in the first 2024 presidential debate. The Oscar winner stressed that Democrats “are not going to win in November” if Biden were to stay in the race.

“I would’ve preferred my Democrats to not do this publicly and in everybody’s face,” Goldberg said about the way Biden faced so much public pressure to step down from his fellow Democrats. “What it did was it had us sitting having to talk about this endlessly…I know the American people, regardless of who the nominee will be, it’s going to be up to the people.”

Haines, however, sided in favor of the Democratic party being able to speak its mind on the matter of Biden not running for president “There is room for criticism when you’re talking about the biggest job in the world,” she said. “Those people that are friends, even George Clooney… a lot of those people were torn themselves. I commend the people that took that risk and said we need to do this. That began some very hard conversations.”

In the minutes after Biden officially dropped out of the race on Sunday, Griffin took to X (formerly Twitter) to thank the president for doing so. She wrote in a post: “It takes character and integrity to know when it’s time to pass the torch. Grateful to Joe Biden for doing what he knows is best for the country and giving another generation of leadership a chance.”

Griffin and co-host Sara Haines urged Biden to drop out of the race during the first episode of “The View” that aired following Biden’s disastrous performance in the first presidential debate against Trump.

“I think President Biden needs to step down and be replaced,” Haines told her co-hosts at the time. “If we want to defeat Donald Trump in November then I absolutely think that. I think Biden’s team saw it coming…Democrats need to stop spinning the age problem. A lot of people are concerned with his age and the Democrats have twisted themselves into a pretzel saying, ‘Don’t believe your lying eyes. It’s not true.’ Joy Behar is 81. Joy Behar at 81 is not Joe Biden at 81 and that was on full display last night.”

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