On Friday’s (January 10) new live episode of The View, the cohosts started the hour by talking about the memorial service for former President Jimmy Carter, which was attended by all five living presidents and some of their spouses — Bill and Hillary Clinton, George and Laura Bush, Barack Obama (Michelle Obama was absent), Donald and Melania Trump, and Joe and Jill Biden — as well as some of the vice presidents — Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Mike Pence (with wife Karen), and Kamala Harris (with Doug Emhoff).
“I couldn’t take my eyes off of the body language,” Joy Behar said before showing a much-seen moment in which Trump made Obama laugh. “It looks like Trump is asking Obama which country the Panama Canal was in!… I wish I was a fly on Mike Pence. I would have liked to have really seen what was going on, but I didn’t have any sound.”
“I think that’s the hard part about interpreting tone because the storylines that we are going on today are hilarious, but probably a lot of guessing,” Sara Haines said before introducing the clip she liked the most, with Bush belly-tapping Obama on the way to his seat. “They have the best relationship, and it goes to show, here are two men from different parties. This is an era that I hope returns, which is these are two men who represent different ideas in D.C., stood for different things, and yet they share the same values in life.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin was stricken by what it means to have all five living presidents in the same place, despite their political and maybe even personal differences: “What I also loved is, we take for granted — we live in a polarized, divided moment. There’s a lot of things to take seriously, to be concerned about, but a lot of countries on Earth could not bring all their former leaders together in one place… If you really just put it into the historic perspective, and to see people trying to show their best class and put their best foot forward, I loved it.”
Even so, she still had a clip of choice to share with her cohosts, saying it was “probably more dramatic than a Real Housewives reunion,” pointing to the fact that Karen Pence did not stand and shake Trump’s hand the way Pence did — which many viewers have read as a reaction to Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, in sending a mob of angry rioters to the Capitol building, which endangered Pence’s safety.
Sunny Hostin chose a moment she found to be particularly “shady” to watch: “I saw that the vice president was sort of befuddled by all the talking between Obama and Donald Trump, like she’s like, ‘What is this?’” She also said Melania Trump looked dismayed throughout the service and added, “I am very curious about what Donald Trump could have possibly said to make President Obama smile. I don’t know if it was a ‘That was dumb smile’ or if it was something that was truly he was truly engaged by it… So I’m reading shady stuff into it.”
“Somebody give Barack Obama a Best Actor Oscar right now,” Ana Navarro responded, to great applause from the audience, before adding, “What I thought was really interesting, though, was on the other side, you know who was sitting there? Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada that Trump has been taunting, attacking, saying that Canada is going to become the 51st state. And yesterday, the President of Panama, President Morino, put out a tweet giving America his sincere condolences on behalf of the country of Panama over the death of Jimmy Carter. And so it reminds you that what Donald Trump has been doing consistently since, you know, he got elected is taunting and creating international incidents with our friends, with our allies, the people who have been with us through thick and thin.”
At the end of the discussion, Behar concluded with, “It’s nice to see all the presidents together,” noting her familiar phrase about how she didn’t want to meet Bush in person because she might like him while disagreeing so vehemently with his policies and official actions. It was then that her cohosts reminded her of a time that happened in the past when she ended up dancing with Mitt Romney at Navarro’s wedding.
“I don’t remember that,” Behar said bluntly before ending the segment.
ALL 5 LIVING PRESIDENTS ATTEND CARTER’S STATE FUNERAL: #TheView co-hosts weigh in on the surprising seat mates and awkward exchanges when former and incoming administrations with a complicated history reunited at yesterday’s funeral for Pres. Jimmy Carter. pic.twitter.com/rG68KYgfRz
— The View (@TheView) January 10, 2025
The View, Weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
