WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden celebrated his 81st birthday Monday by repeatedly joking about his advanced age, even as the White House staunchly defended his stamina and dismissed polls — and a prominent Democrat — suggesting the issue could cost him votes in the election of next year.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president’s age should not be a priority.
“Our view is that it is not a question of age, but of the experience of the president,” she said, while noting that Biden had successfully defended his mandate in Congress. several major legislative texts – including a massive public works program and an initiative on public health and combatting climate change – and visited active war zones not controlled by the US military in Ukraine And Israel.
“What we are saying is that we have to judge him on what he did, not on his numbers,” Jean-Pierre said. “I would put the president’s endurance, his wisdom and his ability to get things done on behalf of the American people against anyone. Anyone, any day of the week.
Biden, for his part, opted for humor.
“By the way, it’s my birthday today,” Biden told the crowd on the South Lawn of the White House as he forgiven Liberty and Bell Thanksgiving Turkeys.
“I just want you to know that it’s hard being 60,” the president added with a laugh. “Difficult.”
Noting that the pardon ceremony before Thanksgiving was 76 years ago, Biden also said, “I want you to know that I wasn’t there — for the first one.” »
Biden, the oldest president in US history for months, he has used humor to try to defuse the problem – even though polls suggest it’s no laughing matter. A August survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 77% of American adults, including 69% of Democrats, viewed Biden as too old to be effective for four more years.
As he seeks a second term, Biden could be heading for a revenge with the former president Donald Trump, who is 77 years old and was the oldest person elected to a first term until Biden. Trump himself has made recent and notable blunders. Yet the same AP-NROC poll found that 51 percent of adults — and just 28 percent of Republicans — believe Trump is too old for a second term.
To coincide with Biden’s birthday, Trump released a new letter from his doctor reporting that the former President’s “overall health is excellent.”
“His physical exams were completely normal and his cognitive exams were exceptional,” wrote Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald of New Jersey, who said he had been Trump’s doctor since 2001 and had examined him for the last time on September 13.
Aronwald added that Trump’s most recent lab results were “even more favorable than earlier tests on some of the most important parameters,” citing recent weight loss that he attributes to “better diet and continued daily physical exercise, while maintaining a rigorous program.
The letter does not mention Trump’s weight, blood pressure or other test results, but nevertheless asserts that he “will continue to lead an active and healthy lifestyle for years to come.”
Trump is not alone in highlighting this problem.
David Axelrod, who helped Barack Obama win the presidency in 2008 and later served as a top White House adviser in an administration that included Biden as vice president, was particularly outspoken recently in his comments to the New York Times.
“I think he has a 50-50 chance here, but not better than that, maybe a little worse,” Axelrod said columnist Maureen Dowd of Biden’s chances in 2024. “He thinks he can fool nature here and that’s really risky.” They have a real problem if they count on Trump to win for them. I remember Hillary did that too.
This was a reference to Hillary Clinton, who lost her 2016 race with Trump.
Jean Pierre said Monday that the Bidens would spend the president’s birthday as they traditionally do, with a Thanksgiving family reunion on Nantucket, and that they planned to eat coconut cake, another tradition.
But she also tried to push back on Axelrod’s comment by saying of the negative polls for 2024: “There are no alarms behind the scenes. »
“I’m not going to comment on everyone who has a comment,” she said, adding, “It’s not my job to tell people what to think.”
Biden announced his re-election campaign in April and said then that his age “didn’t match me.”
“They’re going to watch a race and they’re going to judge whether I have it or not,” the president said of voters. “I respect them by thinking about it carefully. I would take a close look at that too. I thought about it carefully before deciding to run.
Jean-Pierre reiterated that voters will make up their own minds, saying: “We are not going to change the minds of Americans. Americans are going to feel what they feel, and we respect that. »
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report from New York.
