President Biden has said in a pre-midterms radio interview that he feels like he’s 50 and that his looming 80th birthday seems as distant as being able to fly.
“What would 80-year-old Joe tell 50-year-old Joe in this moment?” radio host Willie Moore Jr. asked Biden in the sitdown, which was recorded Sunday and aired Monday.
“That I’m still 50 — that’s the first thing I’d tell him,” Biden answered. “You think I’m kidding. I’m not kidding. That’s number one.
“Number two, I can’t even say that number, 80, you know. But I’m serious, I no more feel that than I can get out from behind this desk and fly.”
The president spoke with Moore as part of a final push to drive black voter turnout. The show was broadcast in 14 states including Senate battlegrounds Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Biden brushed off his age amid widespread skepticism of his claim that he intends to seek re-election in 2024 — as gaffes increase and negative coverage mounts — including a “Bottomless Pinocchio” award this week from the Washington Post’s fact-checker.
The president, who turns 80 on Nov. 20, already is the oldest-ever president — besting Ronald Reagan, who left office at age 77. Biden would be 86 if he completes a full second term in 2029.
Biden hasn’t committed to hosting a traditional press conference on Wednesday — the day after the midterm elections — where journalists likely would ask about expected Republican gains and whether that affects Biden’s own plans.
Biden’s mental fitness attracted widespread concern last month when he searched for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) at an event, despite publicly mourning her death eight weeks prior and even calling her family to offer condolences.
The president won the 2020 election with the most votes in US history as the COVID-19 pandemic boosted mail-in voting, but his popularity plunged during the chaotic August 2021 withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and has remained low amid the highest sustained inflation since the early 1980s.
Former President Donald Trump is expected to announce on Nov. 15 that he’s running again in 2024 — setting up a potential rematch against Biden or a contest against a Democratic replacement.
Biden has repeatedly said he intends to run again and reportedly told former President Barack Obama and activist Al Sharpton privately that he’s serious about doing so.
“I believe I can beat Donald Trump again,” Biden said in a CNN interview last month.
If Republicans retake at least one chamber of Congress on Tuesday, they are expected to block much of Biden’s political agenda, including social spending that conservatives say fueled inflation.
The GOP also is vowing to investigate the president’s role in his family’s consulting work in countries such as China, Russia and Ukraine.