Spencer and Jaime wrote about this lengthy interview yesterday. It was a trainwreck. It might have ventured into rather testy territory when questions about Biden’s age came to the forefront. Biden could have been joking, but he’s not one to really take age and mental capacity questions lightly. He threatened to fight the reporter, claiming his old, frail constitution could take him.
That’s an easy fact check: Biden could not. In fact, a soft body check could kill a man at his age. Here are the rest of his answers stemming from this line of questioning (via Time) [bold text indicates Time staff]:
The last two years of Presidents, two-term President's tenure are usually focused on foreign affairs. You are 81 years old, and would be 86 by the time you left office. Large majorities of Americans, including in the Democratic Party, tell pollsters they think you are too old to lead. Could you really do this job as an 85-year old man?
Biden: I can do it better than anybody you know. You’re looking at me, I can take you too.
Did you consider not running again because of your age?
Biden: No, I didn't.
And what do you say to Americans who are worried about it?
Biden: Watch me. Look, name me a president that’s gotten as much done as I've gotten done in my first three and a half years. When all of you wrote in Time magazine I couldn't get any of it done. When you told me there's no pay, no way, no way he can get a trillion-plus dollar bill done in terms of, to deal with infrastructure, where there's no way he gets $368 billion for dealing with the environment, where there's no way I could get the, the, the legislation passed on.
I remember when I was heading to Taiwan, excuse me, to South Korea, to reclaim the chips industry that we had gotten $865 billion in private-sector investment, private-sector investments since I’ve been in. Name me a president who’s done that.
“Watch me.”
Is that going to be the answer Biden offers any time his age and competency are questioned? The American electorate has watched him, and they don’t like what they see, except single, college-educated women who are ga-ga over his octogenarian because he’s Mr. Abortion. And what has he done? He got a spending bill passed, which led to an inflation crisis. He supposedly got a chips deal done with the Koreans. None of that has impacted American families, who are gutted by Biden’s economic agenda. Many of Biden’s so-called achievements are either not his or inside the Beltway they can’t be boiled down into sellable points to voters.
And sorry, but Time reporters have every right to ask you about your mental health at your age, old man. Biden says, “Watch me,” and we did watch him fall asleep during a Memorial Day ceremony last week. We watched him check his watch at Dover when American military personnel killed in the Kabul suicide bombing in 2021 were returned home. We watched him collapse during the Air Force Academy’s commencement service and fall again on a bike ride in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. All of this marks an appalling display of weakness and aloofness that’s led to the chaos at home and abroad. We’ve undermined our allies like Israel, accusing them of crimes against humanity while cutting off aid shipments to appease the far-left segments of his party that are virulently antisemitic.
Biden caught sleeping at Memorial Day service.
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 28, 2024
Follow Karli Bonne @KarluskaP if you aren't already.pic.twitter.com/4o5BuA3ng8
The Gaza pier, where he’s risked American lives to deliver aid to Hamas, has broken apart, adrift, emblematic of this president’s foreign policy. What are the small business confidence numbers under Biden? What are the consumer confidence figures? They’re not where they were under Trump, which was at record highs.
“Watch me”? We’ve watched a booming economy become saddled with debt as more families max out credit cards. You cannot say the country's economic health is strong when credit card debt has exploded. The first quarter GDP report was abysmal, so there’s plenty of watching, Joe. We’ve also seen your immigration policy allow for an invasion at the southern border, where middle-aged men, mostly criminals released from prisons south of the Rio Grande, have flooded our streets, committing rape, murder, and mayhem upon our citizens. It’s now a national security issue, as two Jordanian nationals tried to breach Marine Corps Base Quantico in May, posing as Amazon workers, one of whom was reportedly on the terror watch list. How did they enter the country? Gee—it’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle.
We haven’t seen a president so incapable and incompetent of doing the job. And yes, over 80 percent of the country thinks you’re too old to run, so it’s a legitimate question, Joe.
You’re too old and too incompetent to be president.