White House issues strong defense of Biden’s ‘stamina’ on 81st birthday amid growing age concerns
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a strong defense of President Biden’s “stamina” on Monday, his 81st birthday, when questioned about the ongoing concerns grow with age.
“I would put the president’s stamina, the president’s wisdom, the ability to do this on behalf of the American people against anybody, anybody any day of the week,” Jean-Pierre told Mark Meredith from Fox News at the White House press briefing in response to a question about former Obama adviser David Axelrod raising the issue of Biden’s age.
Earlier this month, Axelrod suggested it might be “wise” for Biden to pull out of the 2024 presidential race on the heels of a brutal poll that found him losing by as much as 10 points to the former President Donald Trump in five battleground states.
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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and President Joe Biden. (Getty Images)
Mr. Biden’s “biggest liability” with voters is his age, Axelrod said. While he should be “proud of his accomplishments,” there was too much at stake in the country for Trump to risk losing the next election, he said.
Axelrod doubled down on the criticism earlier in the day on Monday, even after Biden called him a “prick.
“I don’t care about them thinking I’m a prag — that’s fine,” Axelrod told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. “I hope they don’t think the polls are wrong, because they aren’t. “
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David Axelrod speaks on stage during the keynote address: End the Stigma: From Silence to Solutions at the 2023 World Mental Health Day Festival at the Healthy Minds Project at Hudson Yards on October 10, 2023 in City New York. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for the Healthy Mind Project)
However, Jean-Pierre told Fox at the meeting that there was “no alarm” going on behind the scenes at the White House despite these age concerns.
“No, there’s no alarm going on behind the scenes. I can only talk behind the scenes here. Alarming is not happening behind the scenes. And I’m certainly not going to comment on everyone who has something to say,” she said.
“Also, it’s just not my job. It’s not my job to think things through or tell people what to think. Right? Whether it’s the American people or a political analyst, you know, or because you have a question about David Axelrod. , it’s just not my place to talk to that,” she said.
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President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a news conference with United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the East Room of the White House on June 08, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Jean-Pierre went on to say that the White House view was not about Biden’s age, but about his “experience”.
“That’s what we believe. And, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. The president has used his experience to pass more bipartisan legislation recently than any other president other. That’s just a fact. That’s something that we’ve seen the president do, and that’s because of what he experienced… So what we’re saying is that we have to judge based on what he did, not by his numbers,” she said.
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Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
