Page 66 of 107 Days
Everything about my appearance on The View was going well. Until it wasn’t.
I’d been on the show about five times before.
Some of the hosts I knew from outside the studio.
Whoopi Goldberg and I bonded over our shared ties to the Bay Area.
Sunny Hostin I knew as a lawyer; she had been a prosecutor like me.
Ana Navarro, a Republican, I’d debated on immigration during the Bush years, but we aligned on many other issues.
All the hosts are thoughtful women of different political stripes, but all had been outspoken about the dangers presented by Donald Trump. He’d refused to go on the show and face their questioning.
I had three interviews scheduled that day, one with Howard Stern and one with Stephen Colbert. Although this one—morning TV, a largely female audience—was friendly ground, my team and I had prepared, and I felt ready.
Whoopi Goldberg introduced me effusively: “We are thrilled that joining us right now for her very first talk show and live TV appearance since accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, please welcome back”—she paused for a long minute, emotional—“the next president of the United States!”
I walked on the stage to the pulsing rhythm of Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” my campaign anthem; a standing ovation from the studio audience; and warm handshakes or hugs from the panelists.
Whoopi asked me about the day the president called me, so I related the story of the pancakes, the grandnieces, and the upheaval that followed. Then Sunny Hostin recalled Biden’s appearance on the show, during which he’d said there wasn’t a single thing that he did that I could not do.
“What do you think would be the biggest specific difference between your presidency and a Biden presidency?” she asked.
“Well, we’re obviously two different people, and we have a lot of shared life experiences.
For example, the way we feel about our family and our parents and so on, but we’re also different people, and I will bring those sensibilities to how I lead.
For example, one of the things I know we’re going to talk about today is what we do around home health care.
I have done a lot of work around violence toward women and children.
I care a lot about that. I love our small businesses.
” I talked warmly about my “second mother,” Mrs. Shelton, who ran a small daycare business.
“So the influence of a personal experience will have its impact on a presidency.”
If only we’d left it there. But Sunny asked a follow-up: “If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”
I had prepped for that question; I had notes on it.
There was the answer I’d given in the debate: “I’m not Joe Biden and I’m certainly not Donald Trump.
” I had a note that I was a new and different generation.
And I had this: But to specifically answer your question, throughout my career I have worked with Democrats, independents, and Republicans, and I know that great ideas come from all places.
If I’m president I would appoint a Republican to my cabinet .
But I didn’t say any of that. I said, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”
I went on to describe things in our record that I was proud of, such as capping the price of insulin, bringing drug prices down, investing in American manufacturing and creating eight hundred thousand new jobs in that sector.
I had no idea I’d just pulled the pin on a hand grenade. I wasn’t braced for the explosion that was coming.
Stationed at various places around the set, my staff were beside themselves.
Political operatives have an eye to see a moment, and I could kick myself for giving the other side that moment.
During the commercial break, while I was having a bit of fun with some young students I’d noticed in the audience who were obviously playing hooky, offering to write notes to their teachers after the show, Opal passed me a note from our team, telling me to return to that question and mention that a big difference would be that I would put a Republican in my cabinet.
I made that point, but the damage was done. The earlier clip was a gift to the Trump campaign, and they used it in ad after ad to shackle me to an unpopular president.
Why. Didn’t. I. Separate. Myself. From. Joe. Biden?
Over the course of the 107 days, I became increasingly aware that people wanted to know there was a separation and that it was a big issue for them. I just didn’t realize how big.
The way I heard Sunny’s question was that it was asking me to be critical of Joe.
I’ve never believed you need to elevate yourself by pushing someone else down.
To do so would have been to embrace the cruelty of my opponent.
In the moment, I didn’t see a way to answer the question without doing that.
Trial lawyers have a saying: There are always three closing arguments. The one you plan to give. The one you give. And the one you should have given. I lived the adage that afternoon.
To me, the difference was evident. Different background, different generation, different career. Obviously, a different person.
But I was still vice president to President Biden. We had three months left of our administration. Even after the lack of support from the White House, the debate night phone call, and the MAGA hat debacle, I felt I owed him my loyalty.
Had I, in that interview, come up with one area of policy difference, it would have limited the definition of the difference between us to that one thing, rather than my unique perspective on a variety of issues.
And it wouldn’t have ended there. It would have opened the door to a discussion that is backward-looking rather than forward-looking.
There would be a slew of never-ending follow-up questions: Well, apart from that one, how would you have made X or Y decision differently from Biden?
Between the president and the vice president there needs to be a zone of trust: a place where the president can get advice, feedback, and criticism to make a good decision, and know that those discussions will remain confidential.
Lawyer-client discussions are privileged; doctor-patient conversations are, too.
And so, I believe, should be the discussions and arguments and, yes, differences of opinion between the president and vice president.
But my campaign team didn’t see it that way. David Plouffe was the most outspoken. He felt that someone needed to do an intervention with me, that I needed to get it through my head that this was a real issue. That was when he told me bluntly, “People hate Joe Biden.”
He also said this: “You’re going to have bad days. You’re going to have to keep moving.”
Two of the three interviews I did that day went off well. Stephen Colbert met me backstage with his wife, and they presented me with their cookbook. He knew my days were long, and with a big smile he said, “Let’s go out and have some fun.”
Howard Stern was a great interlocutor. We covered very serious ground but also had a great time, bantering about music, Maya Rudolph’s impression of me, and blind dates. Yet all I could think about that night was the one interview that hadn’t gone well. I’m tougher on myself than anyone.
But Plouffe was right: I had to keep moving.
So that is what I did.