Biden To Sit for First Post-Presidential Interview on ‘The View’
The former president is trying to get back on the national stage despite being deeply unpopular.

President Biden and his wife Jill Biden will sit for their first post-White House interview next week on “The View” — the daytime talk show that has become a hot attraction for Democratic politicians in recent years. The Bidens are getting back in the public eye much faster than other former presidents, despite Mr. Biden’s deep unpopularity.
“Next Thursday, May 8th, we are honored to welcome former President Biden and first lady Jill Biden,” host Whoopi Goldberg announced Thursday. The hosts plan to ask about his “legacy” as well as his “regrets.”
One of the most memorable moments from the height of Mr. Biden’s popularity after leaving the White House as vice president was in 2018, when he was interviewed on “The View” about potentially running for president in 2020 while also consoling then-host Meghan McCain, whose father was then battling the same kind of cancer that took son Beau Biden’s life.
His appearance on the program next week will be much different than that of 2018, however. Having failed to unify the country as he set out to do in 2019, he is likely to be grilled about his disastrous decision to run for a second term, which contributed to his party’s devastating loss last year.
The architect of Mr. Biden’s departure from the race, Speaker Pelosi, was herself asked about her role in getting her friend of 50 years to stand aside and not run in 2024. Mrs. Pelosi was pressed about whether there were any “hurt feelings” between herself and the Biden family after she helped push him out.
“I didn’t see us on a path to victory. So, it wasn’t about him not running, it’s just, if this is the case, we have to run in a different way,” Mrs. Pelosi said. Mrs. Biden confirmed in an interview with the Washington Post just before leaving the White House that neither she nor her husband had spoken to Mrs. Pelosi since the president was pushed out of the race by his fellow Democrats.
Mr. Biden has made more of an effort to be seen publicly than many of his predecessors had at this point in their post-presidencies. President Obama and his wife spent time on vacation on billionaire Richard Branson’s private island after leaving the White House. Mr. Obama wouldn’t deliver speeches or do public events until late April 2017. President Clinton did not step back into the spotlight until after the September 11 attacks. President Trump — in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol — was largely shunned by Republican leaders and was left to play golf in Florida.
Mr. Biden, though, has had a somewhat more forceful return, despite there apparently being little appetite for him from fellow Democrats. He and his wife made an event out of attending a Broadway show starring Denzel Washington, after which the former first couple greeted the cast and posted about the event on social media.
In early April, Mr. Biden addressed union members at an event in the nation’s capital, where he became an honorary member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Prior to that, in March, he spoke to a Model United Nations conference for students in New York, where he was later interviewed in front of the crowd.
In mid-April, he made a public speech to disability advocates at Chicago, where he did not mention Mr. Trump by name, though he did make the case that Social Security ought to be protected by Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike.
He is moving even faster than his own former deputy in trying to regain some of the spotlight. Vice President Harris made one unannounced visit to a women’s conference in California, where she spoke briefly. Even though she is a favorite candidate to win either the California governor’s race next year or the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, Ms. Harris has only given one scheduled public speech, and that was just on Wednesday.
Concerns about Mr. Biden’s age and lack of ability to do the job of president is unlikely to fade from voters’ minds any time soon. Based on a poll from Gallup conducted in February, Mr. Biden is the least popular living U.S. president, with a favorable rating of 39 percent. Even President George W. Bush — who left office with one of the lowest approval ratings in modern history — currently sits at a 52 percent favorable rating.