News/Commentary

‘You think I don’t know how f-ing old I am?’ Biden, 80, not happy about media coverage of his age

December 14, 2022 | | Print Article

President Joe Biden reportedly has a habit of complaining to his acquittances and allies about how much the media allegedly talks about his age.

“The president has vented to allies about how often his age is mentioned in the press,” Politico reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

“You think I don’t know how f–king old I am?” he reportedly angrily snapped at one of his allies earlier this year.

He’s currently 80 years old, and if he runs for office again and wins reelection, he’ll remain president until he’s 86.

This is important and relevant because a 73 percent majority of all Americans support “maximum age limits for elected officials,” according to a CBS News poll published in September.

This includes 71 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of Independents, and 75 percent of Republicans. Vast majorities of all age groups also share this desire.

That said, what age should the cut-off be? A 40 percent plurality believe it should be 70, while 26 percent believe it should be 60. Very few believe it should be 50, 80, or 90.

This finding was notable because virtually every major politician currently is 70 or older. Indeed, President Biden, former President Donald Trump, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would all be tossed out of the political ring if the 70 rule was in effect.

“President Biden, already the oldest sitting president, is set to become the first president to turn 80 in office. By the way, that’s a feat that former President Trump would match if he wins another term,” CBS News reported at the time.

“Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is also the oldest in history, with an average age of nearly 65, while over in the House, Nancy Pelosi is the oldest-ever speaker at the age of 82,” CBS News added.

To Pelosi’s credit, she finally stepped down as speaker last month. The president meanwhile officially turned 80 on Nov. 20th.

The CBS News poll was published only days before the president committed one of his worst gaffes yet: He called out Rep. Jackie Walorski’s name during an event despite the Republican congresswoman having died in a car crash a month earlier.

Following the event, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked to explain why the president had suddenly called out Walorski’s name.

The press secretary replied with a clearly dishonest answer about how the deceased congresswoman had been on “top of [the president’s] mind” because he’d been scheduled to meet with her family a day or so later.

“So the president was [at] … a very important event on food insecurity. The president was naming the congressional champions on this issue and was acknowledging her incredible work. He had already planned to welcome the congresswoman’s family to the White House on Friday. There will be a bill signing in her honor this coming Friday,” she said.

“So, of course, she was on his mind. She was top of mind for the president. He looks — very much looks forward to discussing her remarkable legacy of public service with them when he sees her family this coming Friday.”

This event happened amid the publication of another poll — this one from Insider/Morning Consult — that found that “nearly six in 10 American adults felt that Biden was either ‘somewhat unfit’ or ‘very unfit’ to serve in public office right now.”

Another poll, this one published by Politico/Morning Consult in November, found that only 40 percent of voters agreed with the idea that the president “is in good health.” Fifty percent meanwhile disagreed.

“That 10-percentage-point gap — outside the poll’s margin of error — represents a massive 29-point shift since October 2020, when Morning Consult last surveyed the question and found voters believed Biden was in good health by a 19-point margin,” Politico reported at the time.

“Asked whether Biden is mentally fit, voters are almost evenly split, with 46 percent saying he is and 48 percent disagreeing. But that negative 2-point margin stands in stark contrast to Biden’s numbers last October, when voters believed he was mentally fit by a 21-point margin,” according to Politico.

Dovetailing back to the president’s angry remarks to his allies, members of the public were not kind in their responses.

Look:

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles