'The View' reacts to Jill Biden, Symone Sanders defending Joe Biden from protesters during California rally
After former Vice President Joe Biden's wife, Jill Biden, and his senior advisor Symone Sanders were hailed as heroes for protecting the presidential candidate from protesters at a rally Tuesday night, "The View" co-hosts spoke about whether the presidential candidates should receive Secret Service protection moving forward.
Biden was in Los Angeles thanking his supporters for a successful Super Tuesday in which he surpassed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' lead to become the frontrunner in the Democratic primary race. During his speech, an anti-dairy protester attempted to storm the stage, prompting the two women to jump into action by placing themselves between the protester and Joe Biden.
A security guard hauled the protester away, but moments later, another protester made her way toward the stage while holding a sign saying "Let Dairy Die." Jill Biden grabbed the protester's wrists and pushed her away from Joe Biden, while Symone Sanders tackled the protester and pulled her away.
The incident went viral on social media overnight, and "The View" co-hosts reacted to the event on Wednesday morning.
Joy Behar expressed concern that the Secret Service is only assigned to former vice presidents for up to six months after leaving office. "Tiffany Trump has secret service protection, and Joe Biden does not," she said.
"He was the vice president," Whoopi Goldberg responded. "Let's make sure you got some coverage, because this is the second incident with them."
Goldberg was referring to an incident in February just before the New Hampshire primary when a man began heckling Joe Biden while recording video on his phone. At that moment, Jill Biden left her seat and escorted the man away.
"I thought, 'I’ve got to do something right now,'" Jill Biden said on "The View" after the incident. "You’ve got to protect those you love, right?"
"Here's the problem that they maybe don't realize," Goldberg continued. "Maybe they're too young to understand how dangerous that is. Maybe they don't remember Robert Kennedy. Maybe they don't remember all of these things that all of us of a certain age have seen."
"Protest all you want to, but when you rush a stage like that, people don't know what's in your hands," Goldberg added. "You will be the one that gets hurt, because if they get [Secret Service] protection and you rush, you're endangering everybody."
Meghan McCain said she thinks Bernie Sanders and any major presidential candidates should have protection.
"There's crazy people out there. There's wonderful people, but there's crazy people out there," McCain said. "They're accosting our possible first lady and next president. It's awful."
Sunny Hostin said that "Jill Biden is 'ride or die'" and commended her for stepping in to protect her husband.
"She's a small lady," Hostin said, adding that "it's not her role to protect Joe Biden at rallies."
Goldberg also wondered hypothetically: "What would have happened if Joe Biden had put his hands on [the protester] and moved her?"
Behar said it's "smart he didn't," and Hostin added that he's essentially "a sitting duck" in these situations when someone storms his stage.
"They should have Secret Service," Goldberg said. "There are too many things that could happen. You don't want it happening on our watch. Please fix this. It's ridiculous."
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