Invoking the Founding Fathers, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sounded off on the “legitimate concern” posed by aged opponents.
“The presidency’s not a job for someone that’s 80 years old!”
(Video: CBS News)
Having returned to the campaign trail after managing the preparation and recovery of Hurricane Idalia, the conservative presidential candidate was asked about the issue just days before his 45th birthday.
During a sit-down interview with CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell, the journalist pointedly asked “Age has become an issue in this presidential contest. Should voters worry about the ages of President Biden, and former President Donald Trump?”
“I think…absolutely legitimate concern,” came the prompt response from the governor. “The presidency’s not a job for someone that’s 80 years old!”
“And there’s nothing wrong with being 80, obviously. I’m the governor of Florida. I know a lot of people who are elderly, they’re great people,” he clearly delineated. “But you’re talking about a job where you need to give it 100 percent. We need an energetic president. And I think that if the founders could kind of look at this again, I do think they probably would have put an age limit on some of these offices.”
On Sunday, 77-year-old Trump had railed over the suggestion that age was as much a factor for him as it was for 80-year-old Biden and posted on Truth Social, “In a phony and probably rigged Wall Street Journal poll, coming out of nowhere to softened [sic] the mental incompetence blow that is so obvious with Crooked Joe Biden, they ask about my age and mentality. Where did that come from?”
Trump issues challenge to ‘MORONS’: ‘I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch & Sons, Biden, WSJ heads…’ https://t.co/B9ISzM1sLS via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) September 11, 2023
The GOP frontrunner had been reacting to a late August poll that found that of 1,500 registered voters, 73 percent agreed that Biden’s age negatively impacted his ability to perform his duties. Of those polls, two-thirds of Democrats had agreed with that position.
Meanwhile, less than half of all respondents felt the same about Trump, and the two presidents were matched at 46 – 46 in a head-to-head race for the 2024 general election if those polled had to decide when asked.
Trump continued defending his vitality and wrote, “A few years ago I was the only one to agree to a mental acuity test, & ACED IT. Now that the Globalists at Fox & the WSJ have failed to push their 3rd tier candidate to success, they do this. Well, I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch & Sons, Biden, WSJ heads, to acuity tests!”
Unlike the former president who had continued lambasting corporate media heads and Biden, challenging the lot to physical contests as well, DeSantis appeared to indicate that voters already had substantial evidence to make the decision on that particular front, especially given the number of governmental figures serving over the age of 70.
“If Biden’s the Democrat nominee, I’m the Republican nominee, I think there’s gonna be a lot of Americans who are going to want to see a generational passing of the torch,” he told O’Donnell.
The second part of the one-on-one interview was scheduled to air Wednesday.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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