Monday’s episode of “The View” took a moment to bask in the joy of hearing President Obama speak during his “60 Minutes” appearance Sunday — but one co-host also questioned whether the timing of his book promotion could have waited a little longer so as not to distract from president-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Sara Haines first took a moment to praise the 44th President before offering up some gentle criticism.
“I’m often moved by what President Obama says because, like Sunny [Hostin] said, there’s an eloquence to him,” she said. “It’s like watching a good minister in church, because you understand and he takes you places. I love all of that. But my one criticism now — and a lot of what he said made sense to me and is great — but we’re sitting in the middle of a divided nation where we can’t even get one side to concede that they lost an election. And what we did see is that although Biden won, which I’m very excited about, there was a lack of enthusiasm about Biden specifically and a lot of people voting anti-Trump.”
She continued: “A little part of me wishes that Obama had waited to make all these interview rounds with the book a little longer, because we need to be so focused right now on President-Elect Biden and Kamala Harris and not take any attention away from that forward-looking administration.”
Whoopi Goldberg offered a counter-point in Obama’s defense, pointing out that he may not have had much choice in when he went on the interview circuit to promote his new book “A Promised Land.”
“What I think I can say to you is that probably wasn’t his choice,” she said. “You write a book and they tell you, ‘This is when we’re going to put it out,’ and I’m sure he thought, ‘Okay, I won’t put it out before the election, I’ll do it when the election’s over.’ Who knew we were going to have the longest election in the history of the United States of America?”
Though Goldberg makes a valid point, she’s technically incorrect about this being the longest U.S. election in history. Comparatively, the recount of Florida votes during the 2000 Presidential Election between Al Gore and George Bush was not settled until midway through December, with Gore finally conceding on Dec. 13, 2000.
Watch the clip below.
OBAMA SAYS U.S. SUFFERING FROM “TRUTH DECAY”: Former Pres. Barack Obama sat down with ‘60 Minutes’ to give his take on Pres. Donald Trump’s legacy and why it’s time for him to concede — @Sunny and @SaraHaines react. https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/T4063GzCvj
— The View (@TheView) November 16, 2020