Biden pretends to squish a bug on the table on The View after Whoopi Goldberg compared Trump to an insect following two assassination attempts

President Joe Biden’s apparent joke about squashing rival Donald Trump like an insect is drawing a lot of attention, given the tense political times and the many threats.

During a taping of ABC’s “The View” on Wednesday, Biden slammed his hand on the table after comedian and co-host Whoppi Goldberg compared rival Donald Trump to a “bug.”

“He just wouldn’t — he was like a bug. He just kept being there, being there like a bug — bzzz,” the comedian said, simulating an insect pestering her forehead, during a discussion about Biden’s decision not to seek re-election.

Biden emphasized her habit by looking at the table in front of him and slapping his hand, prompting laughter from the hosts and audience at the gesture.

For some, it was no laughing matter during a tense week that saw a man charged in the second attempted assassination of Trump.

“In the wake of two assassination attempts and reports that Iran is trying to kill Donald Trump, The View’s Whoopi Goldberg compares Trump to a bug. Joe Biden then responds by pretending to kill a bug on a table,” wrote Steve Guest, a former adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who posted the clip online on X.

Trump’s campaign also complained about a televised comment by Biden’s Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, who criticized Trump for telling a “lie” and said, “Let’s wipe him out for good.”

Earlier in the broadcast, Biden was asked about many of Trump’s own inflammatory comments, including references to “Second Amendment people” and calls for a televised military tribunal for Rep. Liz Cheney, a prominent Trump critic.

“There’s not a lot of social redemptive value. He really doesn’t believe in democracy and the guardrails that our system has put in place against the abuse of power,” Biden said of Trump, a week in New York for the UN General Assembly meeting.

Whoopi Goldberg described Donald Trump as an ‘insect’

Goldberg compared Trump to an insect, a characterization Biden did not dispute

Biden claimed he could have beaten Trump himself and brushed aside polls that showed he was in deep trouble in key swing states.

“I never really bought the claims that there was somehow an overwhelming reluctance to run again. I didn’t feel that,” he said. “We were always within reach of beating this guy.”

Trump himself faced criticism after calling migrants “vermin” in a speech last November.

“We promise you that we will exterminate the communists, Marxists, fascists and radical left thugs who live like vermin within the borders of our country,” Trump said.

Goldberg also spoke of her loyalty to Biden, even at a time when Democrats were lining up to remove him. “You were my ride or die,” she said. “Thank you for everything you’ve done in my life.”

Trump himself lashed out at the FBI during a speech on Wednesday, a day after he was briefed on an assassination threat from Iran. He said Biden should tell Iranian leaders that he