Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday downplayed President Biden’s octogenarian age, recalling a recent meeting in which the 80-year-old commander-in-chief “looked good.”
“I met the president, I don’t know five or six weeks ago. We had a great discussion. He looks good to me,” Sanders told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Sanders, 81, spoke on a variety of issues, such as abortion, climate change, the minimum wage, reforming the pharmaceutical industry and more that he believes voters will consider strongly in the 2024 presidential election.
“When people look at a candidate, whether it’s Joe Biden or Trump or Bernie Sanders, whoever, they have to evaluate a lot of factors,” he said.
Thirty-seven percent of Democratic and independent voters indicated that Biden’s age made them less likely to support him, while 56% said it made no difference, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll from June.
Bernie Sanders has defended the president on the issue of age in the past.AP
Biden has long struggled with questions about his age.
At the age of 80, he is already the oldest president in history. He will be 82 at the start of his second term, should he win re-election, and 86 at the end of that term.
“It doesn’t register with me,” Biden to reporters about his age in April. “But the only thing I can say is that one of the things that people will know is, they will see the race, and they will judge whether I have it or not. .”
President Biden enjoys a shake after a pilates and spin class in Lake Tahoe.AP
But the president has also acknowledged that his age is a “legitimate concern.”
Many conservative critics have pointed out some weaknesses on his part, such as suggesting his administration has plans to build “a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean.”
Last year, during the conference, he called the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), who died in a car accident.
President Biden argued that the American people will look at his performance and make a determination about his fitness for office.AP
So far, the 2024 Republican front-runner is former President Donald Trump, who is 77 years old. Biden maintains a 1.4% lead over Trump in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.
Sanders, who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, which Biden won, recently delivered a policy speech in New Hampshire. He urged Democrats to move to the left in the next election.
Some Republican critics like Nikki Haley have called for mental cognitive tests for aging politicians.AP
“Biden has the right to be proud of a long series of achievements. The point of my statement is that you can’t just as the president of the United States, rest on your laurels,” Sanders said Sunday.
“My message yesterday for Democrats, not just for the president, is if you want to do well in this election, speak to the needs of the American people,” he continued, “be brave enough to take the big bucks.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
