President Joe Biden admitted that concerns about his age from supporters, critics, and, recently, 2024 presidential contenders are “totally legitimate,” something he’s said many times in the past.
Biden made the most recent comment during an interview with ABC News’s David Muir on Feb. 24.
Muir asked Biden “about a conversation that people are having at home”—concerns that if he were to be reelected, Biden would be 82 when sworn in and 86 at the end of his second term.
“Is your age part of your own calculation into whether to run again?” Muir asked Biden.
“No,” Biden replied. “But it’s legitimate for people to raise issues about my age. It’s totally legitimate to do that. And the only thing I can say is, ‘Watch me.'”
He went on to say that his “intention has been from the beginning to run.”
“But there’s just too many other things that I have to finish in the near term … before getting into a full-blown campaign,” he said.
Biden has not officially announced his reelection campaign for president, but many people, including his wife First Lady Jill Biden, believe the announcement is imminent.
Last week, while on the second stop in Nairobi, Kenya, of a five-day trip to Africa, The Associated Press (AP) conducted an exclusive interview with the first lady. During it, she “gave one of the clearest indications yet that President Joe Biden will run for a second term,” the news service reported.
When AP asked Jill Biden, “So, is all that’s left at this point is just to figure out a time and place for the announcement?” she simply said, “Pretty much.”
“I mean, how many times does he have to say it for you to believe it?” the first lady asked. “He says he’s not done. He’s not finished what he’s started. And that’s what’s important.”
A November 2022 Reuters/Ipos poll of about 1,000 people conducted shortly before President Biden’s 80th birthday found that “putting political affiliation aside,” 68 percent thought that Biden may not be “up for the challenge” of being president two years from now. Of the 468 Democrats participating in the poll, 46 percent shared that opinion.
Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley spurred on the debate during her Feb. 15 presidential campaign kick-off speech when she called for mental competency tests for aging politicians, an obvious jab toward her elderly competition for the White House—President Biden and former President Donald Trump who would be 82 and 78, respectively, if either were to take office in January 2025.
On Feb. 16, Biden’s second annual health report summary (pdf) was released, which deemed him “fit for duty” and able to fully execute “all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”
According to the health summary, Biden underwent “an extremely detailed neurologic exam” that other than finding a “mild peripheral neuropathy in both feet,” was “reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebral or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or ascending lateral sclerosis.”
However, the health report lacked any mention of the president’s mental status.
Biden’s “aides and allies note that making [his] announcement now would be historically early,” The Hill reported.