As questions remain about whether President Joe Biden is up for another four years in the White House, he is opening up about whether he actually thought about not running again because of his age.
During an interview with Time, the president was asked about a trend of second term presidents where their time tends to be “focused on foreign affairs.”
“You are 81 years old, and would be 86 by the time you left office. Large majorities of Americans, including in the Democratic Party, tell pollsters they think you are too old to lead. Could you really do this job as an 85-year old man?” he was asked.
Biden responded, “I can do it better than anybody you know. You’re looking at me, I can take you too.”
The interview comes as polls have repeatedly showed Americans are concerned about the president’s age.
And during the interview Biden was asked, “Did you consider not running again because of your age?”
“No, I didn’t,” he answered.
When asked what his message is to Americans concerned about his age, Biden said, “Watch me. Look, name me a president that’s gotten as much done as I’ve gotten done in my first three and a half years. When all of you wrote in Time magazine I couldn’t get any of it done.”
“When you told me there’s no pay, no way, no way he can get a trillion-plus dollar bill done in terms of, to deal with infrastructure, where there’s no way he gets $368 billion for dealing with the environment, where there’s no way I could get the, the, the legislation passed on,” he continued. “I remember when I was heading to Taiwan, excuse me, to South Korea, to reclaim the chips industry that we had gotten $865 billion in private-sector investment, private-sector investments since I’ve been in. Name me a president who’s done that.”
