I'm generally not very sympathetic toward White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre. She's bad at her job, is slow on her feet, and spends much of her time referring questions to others -- or outright refusing to respond to them, even when she has no excuse not to. That being said, I'm not sure how she's supposed to handle questions about the president's age and general condition. The underlying issue is not really about his age, per se. A guy like Bernie Sanders, who is older than Biden, seems cogent and sharp (if totally wrong) in his public appearances. It's the confusion, the falls, the slurring. It's the performance. Biden likes to say "watch me" when asked about his ability to do the job. The problem for him is that the American people do watch him, and they reach this conclusion:
NEW AP/NORC poll: "A whopping 77% of Americans – including 69% of Democrats – say Biden, who is 80 (and will turn 81 in the fall), is too old to effectively serve another four-year term as president." (via NBC's First Read)
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) August 30, 2023
As the tautological cliche goes, it is what it is. Everyone can see it. It's not going to get better. It's going to get worse. So I understand why it's a serious challenge to dream up politically effective and credible responses on these questions. But my goodness, they can surely do better than this feeble, risible gaslighting:
Karine Jean-Pierre lays it on thick in response to polls showing most Americans say Biden is too old to run for re-election:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 29, 2023
"It is hard for us to keep up with this president, who is constantly, constantly working every day to get things done!" pic.twitter.com/67BeUU86jC
She's been using this line for awhile now. It wasn't true then, and it's less true now. And if she really can't keep up with him, that's an amazing indictment of her. I reacted to that spin on television this week:
KJP repeated the line that White House staffers struggle to keep up with President Biden. Not a single person believes that. pic.twitter.com/lR4lXEv2V4
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 30, 2023
It sounds like the president gets frustrated when protective aides treat him like a child:
President Joe Biden reportedly complained to friends that his staff "treated him like a toddler," according to a new book on the Biden administration. "Rather than owning his failure, he fumed to his friends about how he was treated like a toddler. Was John Kennedy ever babied like that?" reads the new book, The Last Politician by Atlantic writer Franklin Foer. The incident was reportedly provoked by staffers at the White House who immediately walked back a comment Biden made in March 2022, when he said Russian president Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power." The book claims Biden "resented his aides for creating the impression that they had cleaned up his mess."
But he makes rhetorical messes on a regular basis, and needs cleaning up after. And John F. Kennedy was in his early 40's when he was elected president. Biden seems to have a sense of how he should be treated and what he's capable of -- while those around him, and voters, hold a decidedly different view. I'll leave you with this:
Joe Biden has spent 23 of the past 30 days on vacation — and later this week, he's going back to the beach for more. pic.twitter.com/T2w3qWCkav
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 27, 2023